The inheritance tax hike is a land grab by Labour to enable development at the cost of farmers - Tom Jones

Factoring just half a million pounds in assets means a farm of just 50 acres will be subject. For context, the average UK farm size is 202 acres.

The Treasury argues that the projected increase in tax revenue is too significant to overlook, estimating in the Budget Red Book that reforms to Inheritance Tax will generate £520m annually by 2029.

However, questions have arisen regarding the accuracy of these figures. In response to an FOI request, the Treasury admitted it has not calculated the specific revenue impact of each individual tax change. This lack of detailed analysis raises concerns about the groundwork done before announcing the policy.

However Labour try to spin the figures, this is going to hammer farmers. I predicted at the time that this would be a disaster for farming; family farmers would sell up, big ones would hoover up and internationals would move in.

That prediction has now been confirmed by Charlie Ireland in The Times, who declared ’Labour’s tax raid is the worst crisis I’ve seen in farming’; ‘Some of the biggest acquisitions of UK land in recent years have been made by overseas pension companies and sovereign wealth funds’, he wrote. ‘These institutions will be unaffected by tax changes and are likely to become more active buyers of land when smaller farmers sell. So I think you will see a move away from family farms in favour of corporate farming businesses.’

It is scarcely credible that such a momentous decision could be arrived at on the basis of such scanty evidence.

Unless, of course, you consider another possibility; after all, if the intention of the policy is to prise more of Britain’s land out of the hands of farmers and into the hands of corporations, then this is a perfectly rational policy.

The fact is that farmers are an inconvenience to Labour’s intended use of the countryside. Under Labour, housing targets for rural authorities have skyrocketed, whilst those for major cities like London and Birmingham – where the housing crisis is most acute – have been cut.

But we will not just lose land to housing. Labour’s plan to ‘Make Britain a clean energy superpower’ largely rests on the idea of achieving a carbon-free grid by 2030, and includes installing a billion solar panels by 2035.

Since generating one gigawatt of solar energy requires 10–11 square miles of panels, this would necessitate roughly 750 square miles - an area comparable in size to Greater London. While rooftop solar installations are generally uncontroversial, much of this expansion is expected to involve solar farms on farmland in England and Wales.

That, of course, is not to mention an estimated 4,000-5,000 new onshore turbines to be built, mostly in England. Or that Ed Miliband’s plan requires a far more dramatic 119,850 per cent increase in energy storage capacity than the outlined 30 GW. That means we will require a huge increase in land to house batteries, flywheels, pumped hydro and liquid air energy storage.

Put simply, Labour have other plans for farmer’s land than careful stewardship and food production. Corporatising the countryside makes it far easier to cover vast swathes of the non-Labour voting countryside in solar panels and houses; alongside making a living, farmers have a concomitant commitment to preservation. Corporations - particularly those not based in or with no connection to Britain - would have no hesitation in ripping up land for such ventures.

Their only commitment is to profit maximisation for shareholders; convenient, then, that Labour are making it easier to snap up farmland whilst offering economy-cripplingly huge subsidies to build renewable energy and to override the planning system in order to force houses through.

Previously, Agricultural and Business Property Relief existed to mitigate the risk of IHT charges resulting in the break up of viable businesses when they are passed down the generations. That made perfect sense; farms are family-run businesses, not personal property.

But whatever the logical or moral rationale for returning to the previous arrangement, it does not matter. Labour needs land; there is a five year plan to fulfil. It will only cost us our natural inheritance, and your children their actual inheritance. As Wordsworth wrote; ‘Is then no nook of English ground secure from thy rash assault?’

Tom Jones is a Conservative councillor representing Scotton & Lower Wensleydale.