By Philip Murray

Copyright inverness-courier

A convoy of Highland tractors took to the roads as part of a protest by farmers against government tax plans.

Farming bodies such as the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and Farmers to Action have been protesting against planned changes to the tax system which they fear will have a devastating effect on the industry.

The planned changes would restrict the amount of inheritance tax relief available for agricultural and business-related property from April of next year.

Advocates argue that the majority of UK residents do not enjoy similar tax relief and claim that the changes will only affect a small minority of farmers – with HM Revenue and Customs estimating that around 2000 estates in the UK will pay more tax as a result.

The government also argues that the moves will plug a ‘loophole’ where wealthy people with no farming background have bought up farm land to take advantage of the relief and avoid paying tax they would otherwise have been liable for.

But critics have hit back, arguing that many more farmers risk being impacted than the government has claimed, and that many multi-generational farms with a long family history of working the land will fall foul of the changes.

They argue that many of these farms do not have the financial leeway to absorb the extra costs – especially at a time when their margins are being squeezed by supermarket pricing and US-led trade wars risk upending the export market.

And they warn that the move could be devastating for farmers and rural communities already feeling the pinch.

Their concerns have led to protests dotted across the UK, and the latest is being spearheaded by the group Farmers to Action, which is carrying out a ‘Trailer of Truth’ campaign to coincide with the build-up to the imminent Labour party conference in Liverpool at the end of the month.

This is seeing farmers dotted across the UK travel in convoys through their area alongside a ‘Trailer for Truth’, which will then be ‘passed on’ like a baton in a relay over multiple days, eventually arriving in Liverpool alongside other similar trailers and farmers when the conference gets under way on September 28.

And this week north farmers have been taking part in the convoy, which set off from John O’Groats on Monday and passed through Inverness today before heading to Elgin and Huntly later this week and then on to the next area.

The latest leg has involved farmers from Caithness, Sutherland, Ross-shire, the Black Isle, Inverness and Nairnshire, with around 15 tractors taking part on the Inverness area’s leg on Tuesday.

Local NFU representative Ian Wilson was among those present, and explained that the size of the convoy was designed to make a statement without causing the kind of travel disruption that larger protests might have sparked.

Highland councillor Duncan Macpherson. who represents the Inverness South ward, was also among those watching on and supporting the convoy.

He said his ward includes a large farming area from the University Campus to the Slochd Summit, and takes in rural communities in Tomatin and Moy, Daviot, Bogbain, Drumossie, along with Nairnside, Culloden Moor and Culloden Battlefield.

He said: “I’m very sympathetic to the farmers’ feelings about the chancellor of the exchequer’s alteration to the inheritance tax situation, that now threatens the future of farming in the north and in the countryside all across the nation.

“My wife is from the Outer Hebrides and she’s the daughter of an Island crofter, as an Independent councillor, I represent many constituents who live and work in the farming communities, and ever since this chancellor’s first budget, farmers and farming communities have felt let down and neglected.

“I stand in solidarity with the farmers and the entire farming communities and I hope that this tractor and trailer demonstration will illustrate to the people in the corridors of power in London, that without hardworking farmers going out each day in all weathers, farming their land and tending their livestock and their crops, then there would be no food on our tables in our homes, or restaurants and hotels, or in our schools, care homes and hospitals.”

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