Speeches by Reed.

“I go back again—we had a £22 billion black hole in the public finances to plug, just to stand still. If we then wanted to raise funding to improve failing public services—like the NHS, schools, affordable housing and potholes cratering roads in the countryside, just as well as everybody else—we had to find the money to…”

“Well, it would not be them. It would be their heirs, to be absolutely accurate, because of course this only comes after somebody has died. It is an inheritance tax. It is not that individual continuing in the business. By definition, they are not in a business any more. It is a very established principle that when you …”

“Not really, because I am talking about how we make the sector profitable. You are telling me that it is not profitable, as though that is a God-given fact of life forever, but it isn’t. There are things that we as a Government can do to help the sector succeed.”

“Tenant farmers are going to be affected differently by this, aren’t they, because by definition, they do not own the land, and they will not be paying inheritance tax on the land? I think there are potentially—”

“There is always a risk, when you have a landlord, that they might sell their asset, but there is a chance that they won’t as well. There is a chance that tenants who have wanted to buy their own land, or some of their own land, will have that opportunity as well. Some of the other changes may well reduce the value of l…”

“The value of land is extremely high, and it has gone up way above the rate of inflation for years now.”

“If you speak to young farmers—”

“—they will tell you how difficult it is to ever get their opportunity to own their own land, because of the price of land. If you look at last year, the majority of agricultural land that was sold went to non-farmers.”

“I know you do not like my answers, with the greatest respect—”

“If we can make land more affordable to farmers, there is a chance, if there is a change in ownership of tenanted farms, that some of those tenants can buy their own land, or buy some of their own land. So there are opportunities. I do not think you should look at change as being inherently negative. Changes can bring p…”

“There are things we could do to improve business opportunities for tenants. That is why we have announced our intention to create the new position of a tenant farming commissioner. The point of that role would be to improve collaboration between the tenant farmer and the landowner, to ensure that the code of practice f…”

“You are absolutely right. I am sure there is a wide variety of farms, properties and ownership in there. The point I was trying to make is that that is the best starting point we have. That data is the only hard data we have for how many claims were actually made against APR for this kind of land. The Treasury’s projec…”

“Yes.”

“You have packed a lot into that. Let me start with the point you made about how people feel. I completely recognise that any change is going to be very worrying for people, particularly as this allowance has existed since 1992. I completely understand how unsettling that is. That is why I think it is important that I a…”

“I am not going to get into the mechanics of Government decision making. I am happy to talk about the decision that was made in the Budget. I think that is what matters. The Budget is endorsed by the whole of the Government, and we will stand behind those decisions.”

“Again, I am not going to air the private conversations that I have had with colleagues. We stand behind the decisions. I am happy to defend those decisions. I am also happy to listen to views about how those decisions could be dealt with differently for the future. It is important that all politicians are listening as …”

“The decision has been taken in this case. The thing that I am picking up is that a lot of people who, based on the Treasury data, will not be affected by changes in APR, currently believe that they will be affected. It is very important that those people get adequate advice. There is some signposting available from DEF…”

“You say we should listen, that I should listen, but I think that applies to all of us in Parliament as well. If you listen to the public in the countryside as well as elsewhere—”

“I saw data on the views of people in the countryside just yesterday. Their top issue is the cost of living and how that is affecting them. Their second issue is the national health service and the decrepit state of it. If this Government had not taken action to plug the £22 billion black hole that we were left by the p…”

“—and that is just to stand still, the cost of living crisis would simply get worse and worse, as it did under the previous Government, and the national health service would continue in freefall, as it did under the previous Government. You cannot just magic money out of nowhere to fix these problems.”