FFA 'fully supporting' Oxford Farming Conference protests
Farmers For Action (FFA) said it is “fully supporting all the farm organisations involved in protesting at the Oxford Farming Conference”.
A number of tractors lined the streets of the university town in protest at the 90th Oxford Farming Conference yesterday (Thursday, January 8).
FFA representative William Taylor said: “Firstly, [the protest is] on the inheritance tax issue.
“This threshold is far too low and not indexed linked and needs to go - as indeed does inheritance tax entirely for the sake of family farmers across the UK and other businesses.”
He added: “Secondly, the protest is highlighting the disastrous farm gate prices currently being delivered for the vast majority of food leaving family farms across the UK.”
“Everyone should consider that today these farmers are needing, in many cases, a 100% increase in the prices they are receiving.
"Therefore, they are haemorrhaging money unsustainably. Thus the number leaving the industry is increasing.”
Oxford protesters
Matthew Trevellyan, a second-generation beef and sheep farmer based in Surrey, was among the protestors at Oxford.
He told Agriland: “We attended the Oxford Farming Conference to keep pressure firmly on [the UK government] ahead of the Committee of the Whole House and Committee Stage, which have not yet taken place.
“The Finance Bill is now approaching its most critical phase.”
Trevellyan added: “The Committee Stage is the last opportunity for IHT [inheritance tax bills], APR [agricultural property relief] and BPR [business property relief] to be removed entirely from the Finance Bill and to set the tone going forward.”
He said that visibility at Oxford mattered because it “kept the issue front and centre with policymakers and industry leaders” and because “it reminded MPs and decision-makers that farmers are organised, informed, and not backing down”.
Trevellyan also said: “Let’s not forget abysmal farm gate prices and the need for a UK farm welfare bill, to return farmers a minimum of the true cost of production inflation linked plus a margin for their produce.”
