A range of reliefs, benefits and rights create an ability, in most cases, to avoid tax. Let us take the seven-year rule. It is a tapered rule, so after four years, the liability drops from 20% to 12%. Also—this has not been mentioned much today—inheritance tax insurance is available. Particularly for younger farmers who wish to gift those assets to the next generation, inheritance tax insurance effectively mitigates any risk of death inside seven years. I recognise that for older farmers that can become quite expensive; none the less, it is a mitigation that is open to anybody. I recognise the issue of gifts with reservation, but that is my central point. It is not just me saying this; the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that with sensible, realistic and relatively straightforward estate planning, estates worth considerably more than £2 million will remain exempt from tax.
There are many measures that can be taken. However, in this context, one of the great benefits of having detailed discussions with farmers is the ability to recognise the practicalities and the detail. By talking to Becki, who runs a multi-generational farm in Darwen, I came to recognise that there are very good arguments for a degree of flexibility around gifting rights and timescales for the over-80s. It is a perfectly good argument for the provision of professional and detailed tax advice to allow genuine family farms to take full advantage of all the reliefs that are available. I genuinely believe that well-advised true family farms can, with a plan to pass those farms between the generations, mitigate or completely avoid any liability from these taxes.
I will finish by going back to the main point that Members have made: farms do not make enough money. Turning things around, getting back to a situation—[Interruption.] We need to get back to a situation where farms can succeed as businesses and where we bring costs down, not just raise prices as was suggested. We need to bring energy costs down and make bills are more stable, use the Government’s purchasing power to buy locally produced food, protect farmers from being undercut through bad trade deals, and remove risk through a rural crime strategy and the floods resilience taskforce. Our plan for farms is supported by £5 billion, which is the biggest investment in farms in generations. Let us stop the scaremongering, get behind British farming and reverse 14 years of decline.
4.17 pm