In a letter to the Editor of the Redditch Standard, published in today's paper (November 08th), Rachel said:
"Labour have broken their promise to farmers in Redditch and the Villages with the Family Farm Tax.
In the build up to the Budget, farmers were promised that the government wouldn’t make any changes to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief. Labour lied.
Labour’s tax will stop farms from being passed on to the next generation of farmers which will threaten our food security, risk jobs and lead to food prices rising.
This disastrous decision will have an impact on our constituency. Family farms in the rural parts of our area will be hit by this tax, damaging our local economy and the rural way of life.
I can’t say I’m too surprised given there was only 87 words about farming in Labour’s entire election manifesto.
As the President of the National Farmers Union has said: “The Treasury’s figures which claim this will only affect one in four British farms are misleading. The £1million cap to APR shows how little this government understands the sector… It’s clear the government does not understand that family farms are not only small farms, and that just because a farm is an asset it doesn’t mean those who work it are wealthy.”
Labour have never and will never understand rural communities. And what is our new MP going to do about this? Probably nothing given he was cheering on the Chancellor during her Budget speech."
