The Chancellor’s plans to facilitate the building of 300,000 new homes by the mid-2020s have been welcomed by specialist rural insurer NFU Mutual which said they could lead to opportunities for farmers.
The company’s rural affairs spokesman, Tim Price said that in some locations farmers could sell land for building to raise funds for investment elsewhere on their land – or to diversify and provide a sustainable future for their farms.
Mr Price added that there was huge relief that the Chancellor avoided increases in duty on petrol and diesel.
“Those running small farms and rural businesses will heave a sigh of relief that they won‘t be faced with expensive accounting admin as the Chancellor has decided to keep the threshold for VAT registration at the current £85,000,” he said.
“There was good news for self-employed farmers and all those working as employees that the Chancellor has stuck to the Tory’s promise to keep increasing personal tax allowances.”
He added that NFU Mutual had campaigned hard for the Chancellor to drop plans to increase the rate of Insurance Premium Tax (IPT).
“We’re delighted that he decided not to further add to the costs of responsible businesses by leaving the tax at its current rate of 12%. NFU Mutual believes further increases in IPT would have placed an unfair burden on country people who have no option but to use cars to get around.”
North of the border, NFU Scotland (NFUS) took a more negative view and chief executive Scott Walker said the union was disappointed with a budget which would “do little to excite and energise farmers, crofters, the agri-food sector or the rural economy”.
“Today’s budget statement could have been a good opportunity for the UK Government to underline its commitment to UK and Scottish food producers by taking up recommendations made by NFUS and the other UK unions on measures that would help farm businesses to build resilience and deal with volatility at what is a pivotal moment of great uncertainty,” he said.
“Positive announcements today were few and far between but cancellation of planned fuel duty rises for petrol and diesel vehicles is welcome. As is the extension of the rural fuel duty rebate scheme for the Scottish islands to 2023.”
nnicolson@thecourier.co.uk
