For generations the sons of toil have farmed the land. Now they are being pushed out by the posh peasants who fancy a bit of tax relief, it has been claimed.
Celebrities and business people who buy farmland with the aim of avoiding inheritance tax are preventing young people from pursuing agricultural careers, one of the presenters of BBC One’s Countryfile said.
Adam Henson, who runs his own farm in Gloucestershire, said the buying up of swathes of farmland by “pop stars, film stars and hedge fund managers” was making it difficult for the farming community to reduce its average age of 59. He said that stocks of farmland had fallen sharply as investment buyers snapped up farms, and referred to Sir James Dyson, the billionaire businessman behind the bagless vacuum cleaner, who owns more than 25,000 acres of land.
Henson, a father of two, told the Hay Festival: “There is inheritance tax relief on land [so] people from outside are buying farms. So Dyson hoovers. He’s bought 20,000 acres and wants another 20,000. That land he buys is now free from the 40 per cent inheritance tax when he passes away. Pop stars, film stars and hedge fund managers are buying land so it is difficult for young people to get into farming.”
Sir James has spoken of his interest in farming and uses some of his land to cultivate maize for energy production. He has also previously suggested that he would be considering drawing on his company’s expertise in “robotic vision technology” to help the industry.
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Many of the buyers bring in tenant farmers to run the estates, but Henson said this was not the same as allowing young farmers the chance to buy land. He said that as farming increasingly moved to short-term tenancies he was encouraging his children to consider other careers.
The price of farmland has finally shown signs of falling after years of increases, with the decline attributed to uncertainty about what will happen to subsidies after Brexit. Young farmers also assert that they are unable to buy farms because older colleagues hold on to loss-making farms and use the EU subsidies, which are worth £3 billion a year, as a pension.
Henson, 51, added that the changing nature of the industry meant that it needed young people to enter it. “You need to be business-minded but you also need to be innovative.
“[We have] amazing technology. Gone are the days that you can drink cider and use a scythe. You’ve got to be a technowizard. We’ve got to have that next generation, who are really sharp, into farming.”
LORDS OF THE MANOR
Sir James Dyson The inventor has purchased 25,000 acres of English farmland over the past ten years, which gives him a larger portfolio than the Queen.
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The Duke of Bedford Owns 13,000 acres in Bedfordshire including Woburn Abbey, where he lives. His overall fortune is £707 million, according to the 2017 Sunday Times Rich List.
The Duke of Northumberland Assets include Alnwick Castle, which has been in the family for more than 700 years.
The Duke of Marlborough His Oxfordshire estate, Blenheim Palace, is estimated at 11,000 acres. He is said to be planning to build 1,600 homes near the palace which would double the size of Woodstock, a small market town.
The Duke of Westminster Inherited estates in England
and Scotland in his mid-twenties.
The Duke of Wellington Owns Stratfield Saye, in addition to 20,000 acres in Belgium and Spain.