MSPs have called on the UK Government to reverse the decision to impose a so-called "family farm tax” on agricultural businesses.
Holyrood backed by 93 votes to 26 an amended version of a Tory motion calling for the decision, announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s (below) Budget last month, to be reversed.
The SNP amendment, which was also agreed by 93 votes to 26, further called on Westminster to “urgently commit to undertake and publish impact assessments” on the impact the Budget would have on farmers and crofters in Scotland.
A Labour amendment, demanding the Tories “apologise to the country” for their “fiscal recklessness”, adding that the Budget was needed to “put the country back on a sound footing”, was defeated by 19 votes to 100.
It's comes after Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney attended AgriScot for the first time on Wednesday at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston.
During a Q&A session hosted by NFU Scotland, chaired by AgriScot Chair Robert Neill and attended by Jim Fairlie MSP and NFU Scotland president Martin Kennedy, Swinney addressed recent changes to inheritance tax rules, sharing his concern over the “chilling effect” these changes will have on family farms.
He called on the UK Government to conduct detailed impact assessments on the reforms and backed a tax framework that enables sustainable succession planning.
The First Minister also made a “cast iron commitment” to restore £46 million to the agricultural budget, emphasising government action amid growing economic and environmental challenges.
However, Swinney told attendees the Scottish Government will struggle to provide multi-annual funding due to a lack of clarity over future block grants coming from Westminster.
“However much I would like to deliver a multi-annual settlement, we only have financial information for one financial year, and given the point I have just made about uncertainty about the implications in our budget, that will constrain the ability of the Scottish Government to set out the multi-annual certainty that everyone in the industry would like us to do,” he said.
On Thursday, MSPs also went on to vote to welcome the Scottish Government’s Housing (Scotland) Bill, saying this “delivers a package of support for tenants across Scotland, including rent controls and homelessness prevention duties”.
That came after a Scottish Government amendment, passed by 60 votes to 57, with one abstention, heavily altered a Conservative motion, which had called on the Government to redraft the bill “as it fails to address the key factors that created the housing emergency”.
The motion as amended was passed by 66 votes to 52, with one abstention.
