Agriculture.

Headline position.

Farmers are structural allies under this platform. The LVT and IHT exemptions for small productive agricultural holdings (already in platform) combined with cheaper British manufactured farm machinery (via reindustrialisation) creates the most pro-farmer policy offer in decades. This briefing locks in those commitments and extends them.

Food security reframed as national security. UK produces ~60% of its own food. This ratio has declined over decades. Reversing it is industrial policy, environmental policy, and national security policy simultaneously.

Rural economy broader than agriculture. Market towns, rural services, rural housing, rural transport: all neglected, all addressable via the same housing and local government frameworks.

Agricultural Policy.

LVT/IHT Exemption Regime.

Agricultural land sits inside the platform's full LVT tier architecture (covered in the Land Value Tax page). The agricultural treatment, summarised:

Tier 1 — Small active farm (full exemption). A holding satisfying all four criteria pays zero annual LVT, with no deferral or accruing liability:

• Size no greater than 200 hectares (approximately 500 acres). Upland grazing operations may apply for an extended threshold up to 400 hectares where the RPA confirms the land is designated for livestock grazing at typical upland stocking rates.
• Total agricultural value not exceeding £3 million.
• Farmer (or farming partnership's principal members) demonstrably engaged in farming as primary occupation, evidenced by RPA registration, active engagement with DEFRA schemes, and tax records showing farm income as the primary source.
• Active operational test: land genuinely being farmed at appropriate intensity. A local assessor visits, checks records and ground, signs off. Tractor, crops, animals, working farm.

Exemption is renewed annually through the existing RPA registration process with no additional administrative burden.

Tier 2 — Large commercial farming (0.5% commercial agricultural rate). Operations exceeding the Tier 1 thresholds pay a modest commercial LVT of 0.5% on agricultural value, deliberately lower than the standard commercial LVT (1.5%) because agricultural activity is a legitimate productive use the platform wishes to continue. The rate exists for three reasons: equity (small family farms face the full burden of market pressures while large operations benefit from scale economies), incentive alignment (creating gentle pressure to release land to smaller operators), and anti-avoidance (without it, any landowner could claim "farming" on any land to escape LVT entirely).

Tier 3 — Strategic agricultural hold (vacancy escalator). Agricultural-zoned land that is not actively farmed falls onto the Danish vacancy escalator: 2% in Year 1, escalating to 8% by Year 4. This is the anti-landbanking provision that protects genuine farmers from being outbid by speculators holding farmland for future development uplift. Legitimate routes out of the escalator: farm it, apply for planning and build, sell to a farmer or developer, designate for ecological stewardship, or accept council reversion at Year 5.

Inheritance tax. IHT exemption is available for genuine working farms passed to heirs who will farm them, with anti-avoidance tightening relative to current Business Property Relief.

Rationale and political framing:

• Genuine family farms should be able to pass to the next generation without forced sale to pay IHT.
• The loophole is closed: investment vehicles buying farmland for IHT shelter do not qualify. This is specifically the Jeremy Clarkson / James Dyson issue in public discourse. Qualifying holdings are tied to active farming as primary occupation, not nominal ownership.
• Large corporate farms above the Tier 1 threshold pay the Tier 2 commercial agricultural rate, not the standard residential commercial rate. They are taxed for being commercial operations, not penalised for being agricultural.
• The Tier 3 escalator and Sound Toll mechanisms in the LVT architecture do the work of preventing speculative agricultural land accumulation, which has been a structural threat to the family farm for decades.

Farm Equipment and Machinery.

Key strategic linkage: Industrial policy includes farm equipment manufacturing.

• JCB (Staffordshire) is a major British agricultural machinery manufacturer
• Massey Ferguson (historically British, now AGCO, but UK operations significant)
• Claas, Fendt, New Holland all have UK presence
• British manufacturing push includes agricultural sector: farmers get cheaper machinery from domestic production

Policy:

• Agricultural machinery qualifies for full expensing (already in platform for productive capital)
• Zero VAT on qualifying new farm equipment from UK manufacturers (new provision, £200m/year)
• Skills training for agricultural engineering and machinery maintenance

Environmental Land Management (ELM).

Position: Current ELM schemes (SFI, Countryside Stewardship, Landscape Recovery) maintained but reformed for clarity and delivery.

Reforms:

• Payment certainty: 5-year rolling commitments, not annually negotiated
• Simplified application process: current system has high compliance cost
• Preference for farmer-led schemes over consultancy-designed ones
• Explicit reward for soil health, biodiversity, water management
• Tree planting and hedgerow restoration supported but not mandated at scale that damages food production

Cost: £2.4bn/year (approximately current ELM envelope). No increase but better delivery.

Food Security and Domestic Production.

Position: Target of 70% UK food self-sufficiency by 2035 (from current ~60%).

Mechanisms:

• Tariff policy protecting strategic food sectors (dairy, beef, pork, poultry, horticulture)
• Public procurement: schools, hospitals, military, prisons default to UK-produced food
• Investment in horticulture (UK produces only 16% of fruit and 50% of vegetables it consumes)
• Support for new entrants: land access schemes for young farmers
• Glasshouse and protected horticulture: energy-efficient UK production at scale (ties to energy policy; cheap British renewable electricity enables domestic tomato, pepper, cucumber production competitive with imports)

Trade and Post-Brexit Framework.

• UK-EU agricultural trade simplified (reduce friction, not re-enter single market)
• Australia/New Zealand trade deals reviewed: current terms undermine British farmers
• No trade deal that opens UK market to lower-standard imports (hormone beef, chlorinated chicken; already blocked, stays blocked)
• Support for UK agricultural exports: lamb, cheese, whisky, speciality products

Rural Services and Infrastructure.

• Rural broadband (covered in the Digital briefing)
• Rural post offices protected via reformed USO, possibly direct subsidy
• Rural bus services: restoration funding within local government settlement
• Rural schools: threshold for closure raised, transport funding maintained
• Market towns: LST receipts used locally to support high streets

Cost: £1bn/year additional rural services funding by Y3.

Fisheries.

Position: Post-Brexit fisheries framework maintained. Coastal fishing communities supported with:

• Modernisation funding for fishing fleet (ties to shipbuilding industrial policy)
• Port infrastructure investment
• Processing capacity rebuild (UK currently exports raw fish, imports processed; economic loss)

Cost: £200m/year.

Costs.

Item	Y3	Y5	Y10
ELM (current envelope, reformed)	£2.4bn	£2.4bn	£2.4bn
Zero VAT on UK farm equipment	£0.2bn	£0.2bn	£0.2bn
Food security programmes	£0.5bn	£0.8bn	£0.8bn
Rural services restoration	£1bn	£1bn	£1bn
Fisheries	£0.2bn	£0.2bn	£0.2bn
TOTAL (above current baseline)	£1.9bn	£2.2bn	£2.2bn

Note: ELM is not additive, it replaces existing BPS spending. Genuine new commitments total £1.9bn/year by Y3.

Revised running headroom: Y5 £11.4bn / Y10 £43.9bn

Strategic Framing.

The agricultural sector has drifted Conservative for decades but is politically persuadable on three issues: IHT reform (the Labour 2024 inheritance tax changes caused genuine farmer anger), trade policy (the Australia deal is deeply unpopular with farmers), and the general sense that nobody in Westminster understands rural life.

Common's pitch to farmers: "Your farm stays in your family. Your machinery is made in Britain. Your produce goes on British school and hospital plates. We will give British farmers a fair chance against imports. And the rural services your community depends on, the bus, the post office, the GP, the school, will be properly funded."

This is a stronger offer than any party has made to British farming in a generation. Combined with the housing theory benefits (affordable rural housing for farm workers and young farmers) and the industrial benefits (cheap British machinery, cheap British energy), the total offer is substantial.

Rural and farming constituencies are approximately 80 seats where a credible agricultural offer can shift material vote share. Historically these have been safely Conservative; they are now persuadable. Low cost, high strategic value.