Farmer Oli Stokes, at the family’s Farndon Fields Farm (Image: Paul Marriott)
A farmer who branded Rachel Reeves’s Budget an “attack on a way of life” considered exiting the family business because of her tax raid.
Former gin distiller Oli Stokes leads his parents Milly and Kevin’s 40-year-old Farndon Fields farm in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
He said his initial reaction to the Chancellor’s tax-raising budget was “shock and a complete loss of confidence”.
Oli, 33, said: “Initially, it felt like ‘hang on, is this the popular opinion?’ Because why would a government do this to shaft all businesses and farmers. It felt like an attack on a way of life. For me personally, I’m succeeding in my parents’ business. We’re in that transition now. They’re retiring and I’m trying to take that on for a second generation but for a couple of weeks I was really, really re-evaluating that decision because where does it end?
“If they keep tightening the screw and taking away subsidies on the farming side, and not doing anything to inspire confidence in consumers or businesses, it felt like ‘right, it’s getting harder and harder’.”
Oli, whose farm employs 70 people on the 500 acre plot, told how his biggest concern in the short-term was the hike in employer National Insurance.
He warned this could lead to fewer younger people being hired, job cuts and increased prices at the farm shop and restaurant.
Oli, who has been running the business since 2021, said: “The increase [NICs] is going to put onto our employment costs for exactly the same level of employment is in excess of £100,000. We’re a small family business. We employ 70 people. Half of that is the living wage and half of that is NI.
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Farmer Oli Stokes, at the family’s Farndon Fields Farm, in Market Harborough (Image: Paul Marriott)
“It’s right that wages should follow inflation to try and keep up but it’s short-sightedness. But the bits we don’t really understand is that it massively disadvantages younger people.
“From our perspective, when we hire people with no experience who are a bit younger, we can see that they’re not going to be as experienced and knowledgeable and able to impact us straight away. We’re going to have to train them but if we’re in a position where our employment budget is really tight and we have to make a decision of who we hire for a new role, it’s going to be somebody with a lot more experience who’s going to be able to make an impact from day one.
“They’re short-sighted things on the policy. How we’ll adapt is unfortunately not taking on younger staff.”
In recent years, Oli has had to shorten opening hours, compressed shifts, stop producing strawberries and halt home deliveries.
He said he raised the farm restaurant’s prices on the winter menu for the first time in 18 months as a direct result of the budget.
The businessman could not rule out further price hikes for the spring menu to cope with financial pressures.
Oli branded the Government’s inheritance tax raid on farmers and businesses as “crazy”.
He said: “We’ve put our ‘what do we do’ response on hold until we have proper guidance from the Government to our advisors.”
“Ultimately they [Government] messed it up. The threshold is crazy low.”
“They’ve lost the rural vote and they’re never going to get that back. But it’s businesses as much as farmers. It’s the business property relief as much as the agricultural property relief. That’s where it hits farmshop people doubly.”
The Daily Express has demanded a U-turn on the government’s inheritance tax changes through the Save Britain’s Family Farms crusade.
Ms Reeves placed a 20% inheritance tax on farmers’ assets worth more than £1 million in her October Budget from April next year.
Oli, who hugely values the societal benefits of farming to the local community, said: “For me, the biggest concern is how we succeed from generation to generation without losing half the business to a tax bill which would cause the business to shut down because we don’t have the cash to pay for it and we’re not going to borrow money to pay taxes.”
“I grew up on the farm. My parents started this business from an allotment essentially, selling potatoes on a tennis table on the side of the road. Over 40 years they’ve built it to employ 70 people and turnover £5million, and be a hub of the community.”
“I want to preserve this piece of land that has grown food and provided landscape and habitat for local people and wildlife, and not become a housing estate. Half of the farm is now a housing estate. We were tenants and we were evicted and it was developed into a housing estate in a really insensitive way.”
“Me personally, my responsibility is this business; the people we employ, serve and suppliers we buy from.”
Environment Secretary Steve Reed acknowledged last month that changes to agricultural property relief was “very unwelcome”.
He said: “It wasn’t something we intended or wanted to do before we saw the state of the public finances, and of course, I regret that, but we tried to make it a little easier.
“For most people who are inheriting an estate, the first £3 million will be fully exempt, and after that, people would only have to pay half the rate that would apply elsewhere, and instead of having to pay it off in one go, it can be phased over 10 years.
“Now, I know that doesn’t address all of the all of the concerns, but it’s intended to make it a little easier.”
By Emma Mosey, chair of the Farm Retail Association
Anyone who has young children will have gone through the tractor-obsession stage.
Whether boy or girl, an early interest in farming seems universal. Tractor Ted, Peter Rabbit and Old MacDonald, farming is built into the fabric of our culture.As the Chair of the Farm Retail Association, and owner of Yolk Farm in North Yorkshire, I worry that the government’s recent Budget will spell an end to UK food production.
Perhaps children’s story books are the only place we will find farming in the future: in a rose-tinted version of the past.Farming was already hard, with unpredictable weather and global cost challenges. The average profit margin in a UK farm is just 0.5%.
With the recent changes to IHT reform, many more farms than the government have anticipated will have to sell 20% of assets or stock each generation, rendering them even more unviable.Many of our members have diversified away from traditional farming into more commercial enterprises like shops and restaurants for this reason.
We are the entrepreneurial farmers who have gone direct to consumer to protect the price of our products in a world where supermarkets pay little more than the cost of production. And we are a flourishing industry. But the Budget challenges us in further ways, with National Insurance hike, wage increases, and a reduction on business rates relief.Farmers are a hardy sort and being a farmer is more than a job – it’s an identity.
For those of us who have diversified, we will rise to the challenge and weather the storm, and hopefully come out stronger as a result.
We have no other alternative, as we are the guardians of UK food production and security. We are the places people come to learn about where their food comes from. To lose that would be a real tragedy.