Monmouthshire council to debate farm inheritance tax

Monmouthshire councillors are set to debate national policy related to farms for the second time in less than a year. 

The council will be asked to note it “regrets” the decision by the UK Labour government to scrap the exemption to inheritance tax for farms, when they meet at County Hall in Usk on Thursday, December 12. 

The motion has been put forward by Conservative councillor for Devauden Rachel Buckler and also asks the Labour-led council “agrees to work with local farming unions and other Welsh councils to persuade the UK Government to protect our rural communities and not kill off family farms.” 

The motion could test Labour’s support in the chamber after it lost an October by-election to the Conservatives which shifted the balance of power to the four strong Independent Group. 

The by-election was caused after Labour’s Catherine Fookes was elected to Parliament, at July’s general election, and her Monmouth Town ward seat was captured by Martin Newell for the Tories. 

That reduced Labour’s group to 21 seats and it runs the council through a coalition with Green Party councillor Ian Chandler, who sits in a group with independent councillor Meirion Howells, equalling a combined 23 votes on the 46 member council. 

The Conservatives have 19 members and with four councillors in the Independent Group the combined opposition can match the 23 votes of Labour and Green Independent groups. 

In February the council passed a motion calling for the Welsh Government to pause its consultation on reform of farm subsidy payments, which it eventually did, after Labour  members abstained.