Welcome to the Autumn edition of our Agricultural Journal
On behalf of our Agricultural and Landed Estates team, I am very pleased to present to you the Autumn 2022 edition of Ryecroft Glenton’s Agricultural Journal.
As today’s news (17th October) unfolds, I find myself writing my second introduction to this edition, asking my team to scramble together and rewrite articles as well as contacting our printers to ask them to pull our original version from print.
The chaos, uncertainty and disruption caused by the government’s mini budget on 23 September has been quite something.
Kwasi Kwarteng has been sacked as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a reaction to the economic chaos that ensued following the mini-budget, in which he announced £45 billion in unfunded tax cuts. Mr Kwarteng served just 38 days in the job, making him the second shortest-serving UK Chancellor on record. His replacement, former Health and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, will be the fourth person to hold the position in as many months.
The mini-budget pushed the pound to a record low against the dollar, sent the cost of government borrowing and mortgage rates up and led to an unprecedented intervention by the Bank of England.
Last week, after open revolt by Tory MPs and a record surge for Labour in the polls, the Prime Minister announced the first major reversal of mini-budget policies when she backtracked on scrapping the 45p top rate of income tax. Then on 17 October, the new Chancellor went one step further and completely reset the government’s economic plans, ripping up the disastrous mini-Budget after accelerating measures that were set to be announced as part of the Medium-Term Fiscal Plan on 31 October. The good news………. the pound rose and government borrowing costs fell as investors welcomed the announcement by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt of the reversal of most of the mini-budget tax measures.
Because of the contribution British farming makes to the national economy, investing in this sector to increase productivity is in everyone’s interest. At a time when farmers are facing multiple challenges beyond the norm including increasing energy costs, labour shortages and soaring prices, measures such as the commitment to maintain the annual investment allowance at £1million along with the government’s plan to review frameworks later this autumn (saying it would rapidly review matters regarding regulation, innovation, and investment that impact farmers and managers in England) are welcomed.
The articles that follow include more details on the key points coming out of the Fiscal Plan along with an update on the Agricultural Transition Plan. As we are all still processing the Trust Registration Service changes in legislation, we have included an article
to explain some of these changes and give some practical examples that illustrate how they affect partnerships.
As many challenges remain within the industry, our Agricultural and Landed Estates team are happy to help you navigate any issues you may face or concerns that you may have, and we look forward to seeing many of you at the Northern Farming Conference on 2 November and hopefully at our own farming event at Morpeth Rugby Club on 17 November.
