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British Beer Under Threat From Inheritance Tax Raid, Hop Farmers Warn

by Will Jones
26 November 2024 7:01 PM

British beer is under threat because of the Government’s “tractor tax” that could sound “the death knell” for hop farmers, Keir Starmer has been warned. The Telegraph has the story.

The British Hop Association (BHA) said Labour’s inheritance tax raid could sound “the death knell” for hop producers, forcing breweries to import the crop from abroad instead.

Hops, which give beers and ales their bitter flavour, are the flower of the common hop plant and have been used by British brewers since the medieval period.

However, there are now just 44 hop-growing farms left in the country and industry representatives have warned that the Government’s 20% inheritance tax on farming assets worth more than £1 million could force many of them out of business.

Mark Andrews, of the BHA, told the Telegraph that the tax raid would “definitely hurt production”.

“Things are a struggle enough as it is,” said the 10th-generation hop and cider apple farmer from Ledbury, Herefordshire.

“A very large tax bill, even though it can be spread over 10 years… I can see hop production diminishing.

“It could be the death knell for British hop growing. Brewers would have to import much more foreign hops.”

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: Bombardier is among 11 classic beers to be axed by Danish brewing company Carlsberg, which stands accused of “wiping out” British brewing heritage. The Telegraph has more.

Tags: BeerFarmer protestsFarmingInheritance TaxKeir StarmerLabourRachel ReevesTax Rises

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18 Comments
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Heretic
Heretic
5 months ago

Only 44 hop farms left in the country???!!!

This news is just heartbreaking, when I think of all the beautiful old hops growing in the summer sunshine of Kent, “The Garden of England”, years and years ago, and the old oast houses there.

“While Dad worked at the docks in London, mum would take us kids up to Kent over the summer. We’d be up at 7am, and mum would make us sandwiches for the three-mile walk to the hop fields. I was only a babe in arms but as soon as I could walk properly, I would scrape hops off the floor and collect them in an umbrella. We all had to pick, it didn’t matter about our age.”

“Sixty-seven year old Colin Felton’s memories of journeying from the East End for his hop picking “holiday” in the Kent countryside are not unique. Until the 1960s, some 10,000 people – often, whole streets of families – would leave the stench of the city for the sweet aroma of Kent’s ‘hop gardens’ each September.”

“Kent became the focus of the hop industry thanks to Protestant refugees from Flanders who came to the area and began growing hops. “Having the right field structure – rich soils and a microclimate with cold winds from the North Sea – it was perfect for hops, so they stayed,” says hop breeder and researcher Dr Peter Darby.”

from British hop growing in Kent and fond memories | Local Food Britain

Last edited 5 months ago by Heretic
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Heretic
Heretic
5 months ago
Reply to  Heretic

“When these migratory families reached the hop farms, conditions were far from what you’d expect from a “holiday”.”

“The huts were 9ft square, and we had two beds, one for the three girls and mum and then one for me and my three brothers,” says Colin, whose family would pick for up to five weeks at a stretch. “At 5pm we’d come back from the fields and have a cold wash. It was harder to get warm water because you’d have to light a fire.”

“Indeed, despite the stories of primitive conditions, and the hard work involved, many pickers look back on this time with fondness.”

“Dad would come up at weekends and mum and him would go to the pub, while us kids would go fishing, scrumping or walking,” says Colin. “We didn’t get up to mischief because we didn’t want the farmer to ban us from coming again – it was our holiday after all. Sometimes we’d miss school, but no one said much about it because we were earning money and people understood.”

[***Dear Third World, what was that you were saying about “White Privilege”?]

Last edited 5 months ago by Heretic
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Mogwai
Mogwai
5 months ago

Starmer is like an incubus sucking the lifeblood and all that is good out of the country. There’s just never any good news where he’s concerned, is there?

Meanwhile, does this sound like a reasonable forecast for what lies in store for British farming, do you think?

”Watch out British Farmers, This is how @Keir_Starmer ‘s new best buddies at BlackRock are going to screw you over in 7 steps …

1. They will start buying up small plots of agricultural land at double the normal price. They will issue a directive to all of their energy companies simultaneously to aggressively acquire plots for carbon capture. These third parties will start bidding against each other and force the value of agricultural land up.

2. Initially farmers won’t believe their luck – “these city folks are mad! if they want to buy an acre for £50K, who am I to say no to these fools” is what you’ll hear down the pub.

3. These crazy prices will set record high comparisons for agricultural land. When a farmer dies, their farm will be valued using these new metrics and the next generation will discover the farm they thought was worth £3M is worth £9M and they don’t have anything close to the money needed to cover the tax.

4. In swoops a BlackRock subsidiary with a “Agri Debt Finance Tax Relief” product to lend them 20% the “value” of their farm so they can pay the taxes.

5. The debt will come with conditions (a covenant) that the farm has to adopt and maintain certain practices. It has to use certain BlackRock owned fertilisers, software, machinery and labour solutions that get the farm ready to interface with a larger conglomerate.

6. When a farm cannot make its debt payments, it is sold at auction. BlackRock subsidiaries are instructed NOT to buy these farms at auction. They have a special arrangement to buy the unsold farms at a rate that covers the unpaid debt plus outstanding fees and taxes to government… basically what the farm was originally worth.

7. A BlackRock subsidiary then takes over the farm, consolidates it with a massive group of farms and uses illegal immigrant labour to staff the farm (which will be another government program they institute to deal with the immigration crisis). The government will literally pay for the labour costs as part of this plan making the farms wildly profitable and making small family farms unable to compete.”

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/blackrock.418740/

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john1T
john1T
5 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Plus, once the farms are all consolidated in to mega farms there will be hundreds of unused farm buildings dotted all over the country’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. All in prime locations and just waiting to be converted into £million second homes for the filthy rich. They will be salivating about that prospect right now, just got to get the peasants out first.

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Heretic
Heretic
5 months ago
Reply to  john1T

Or given to the Millions of Fake Asylum Seekers as free housing, to make the British countryside “less racist”.

Then this will get even worse:
Moment huge brawl erupts at Dovedale stepping stones beauty spot as people hurl large sticks at each other | Daily Mail Online

Last edited 5 months ago by Heretic
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huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
5 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

That seems like a plan to me. The likelihood of silly prices for farmland was a given as soon as the IHT hit was announced.

This country and all its productive components like farming, manufacturing are rapidly being destroyed so that the likes of Blackrock can pick over the carcasses. Farming in particular is all about ‘whomever controls the food controls the people.’ Of course the intention is to destroy traditional farming because the people are the backbone of the country, a society within society who represent independence, graft and honesty. No wonder this class has to be destroyed.

To quote Chris Rea…

“We’re on the road to hell.”

Or Talking Heads…

“Road to nowhere.”

Last edited 5 months ago by huxleypiggles
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RW
RW
5 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

I was actually wondering about how the value of the land of a farm will be determined. Without actually selling it, this must necessarily be someone’s estimate and that’s wide open to gaming by interested parties.

7
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Myra
Myra
5 months ago
Reply to  RW

Agree. And if it becomes a fire sale… that could then maybe be used to lower the value of the farm…going in circles here😂

2
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EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
5 months ago

Why is it commentators suggest these disfunctional policies are a mistake. Commentators used to say much the same throiughoiut the 14 years of Tory mess-ups.

Instead we should assume the outcomes are just what the government wants. This government hates SMEbusinesses. The previous one like Labour preferred globalist businesses to native British ones.

Closing down small hop growers and small brwewers would be exactly in line with their joint globalist hopes.

7
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huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
5 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

“Closing down small hop growers and small brwewers would be exactly in line with their joint globalist hopes.”

Furthermore, there is something quintessentially English about our hops. Again an industry with hundreds of years of history.

English / British history ? It has to be destroyed just like farming, manufacturing and so on.

Acting on the orders they have been given – destroy Great Britain – I would suggest that Kneel’s mob will be considered moderately successful. We are being extremely naïve in thinking that the economic destruction being heaped upon this country is down to piss poor management. It’s not. It’s deliberate and everything is co-ordinated and timetabled.

And the economic climate will become so desperate that eventually and to all intents and purposes we will be sold lock, stock and barrel to the likes of Blackrock or derivatives thereof.

6
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Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
5 months ago

Don’t worry. Starmer will outsource our hop growing to Mauritius

4
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Heretic
Heretic
5 months ago
Reply to  Lockdown Sceptic

Good point! Or Rwanda…funded by British Taxpayers.

3
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
5 months ago

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cje050wz22qo

Billingsgate and Smithfields to close after 850 years.

As I keep posting, it’s all about destroying the country and taking our history with it.

8
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Insurrectionist
Insurrectionist
5 months ago

Umm, interesting, shame the frost has been and the Liberty caps are gone.. Maybe next year..

https://youtu.be/0hS3eT5fhTM?si=jyeBF74mIUadAZPU

Last edited 5 months ago by Insurrectionist
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Grim Ace
Grim Ace
5 months ago

Partly caused by our young people not drinking beer and instead drinking European larger. Traitors. MEGA – Make England Great Again!

2
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JohnK
JohnK
5 months ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

Some brewers actually use hops from across the pond, e.g. Oregon, or Washington states. I’ve come across those on various brewery visits recently.

3
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
5 months ago
Reply to  JohnK

Yes. Citra hop is particularly common. Horrible stuff.

1
0
marebobowl
marebobowl
5 months ago

Will anyone make a bet with me? Ms reeves and her crew will back down from the inheritance tax on farmers plan. We are witnessing, the backtracking on every single net zero goal. The same will happen with the newest gov’ts other “initiatives”. That is my bet.

2
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