Budget is wasted opportunity for rural reset - Johnnie Furse

Earlier this month, the Countryside Alliance wrote to the Chancellor, urging him to take a first step towards mending rural relations this Budget.

We suggested 10 practical policies, moves that would show the government does care about rural people, and wants to work with them, not against them.

Scrap the hated family farm tax that raises next to nothing for the Treasury, scrap VAT on heating oil to ensure that rural people are not left out in the cold while those on mains grid are extended a lifeline, reduce the National Insurance burden on countryside businesses. But the government ignored all of these.

Instead, what we saw, was a false display of generosity, a token gesture. Understandably, to many in the countryside, this went down like a cup of cold sick.

Extending small business rates relief could help rural businesses, but coupled with hikes in employment costs it remains to be seen whether hardworking rural business owners will see any real benefit.

Temporarily extending the red diesel duty cut and suspending tariffs on kerosene heating oil and fertiliser are welcome moves – assuming any benefit actually trickles down to consumers – but ones that will come as little solace to farmers still facing enormous threats to their livelihoods.

The government’s lack of care for the countryside was made clear. Mr Healey mentioned farmers in his speech, but in the whole 166 page Budget, the agriculture sector is mentioned just three times.

Before becoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham pledged to revisit the hated Family Farm Tax. He has failed to do so.

This tax continues to tarnish the government’s rural record. It is preventing farmers from making important decisions about their livelihoods, hampering the government’s own mission of creating good growth in every postcode. There is little chance for the government to regain any favour in the countryside until they abolish this inimical policy.

There was another blow for rural people on Wednesday. Farmers have been encouraged for years to diversify their businesses by creating holiday lets, among other measures; but anyone who has done so is now being punished by yet another increase to the property income tax paid on such lets, further threatening the viability of their business.

At a time when the government should be increasing support for farmers, and in the wake of last month’s Sustainable Farming Incentive fiasco, it has instead slashed Defra's funding for 2027-28 by £100m. How they intend to increase organically managed farmland from 3.4 per cent to 10 per cent of the UK’s agricultural land is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

The Chancellor went on and on about how his policies will give “breathing space” and “fresh hope”. But the facts are clear: this Budget does little to give “breathing space” or “fresh hope” for the countryside.

If this government is serious about growth in every postcode, including in the countryside, it must urgently address the plethora of problems facing rural businesses, and it must begin to legislate for rural people, not against them. Step one is to scrap the family farm tax. Until that happens, there is little chance of turning a new leaf.

Johnnie Furse is External Affairs Officer at the Countryside Alliance