Labour’s damaging Budget risks breaking both manufacturing and farming in the UK

Plus: Value for money tsar; Hamas hospital; BBC arts coverage; dramatic teddy; handwriting howlers; and British Airways’s terminal decline

SIR – We have been manufacturing farm machinery since 1847, employing about 60 skilled engineers. We are owned by our workforce.
Turning over about £10 million, we manage to squeeze out a profit every year, and invest heavily in development, which is why we are still in business.
The Budget will increase our employment costs (report, November 1) by £50,000 a year – that’s money straight off the bottom line, which HMRC cannot take 25 per cent from by way of corporation tax.
Our decision to invest in a new machining centre has now been put on ice, and we await the fallout from our customers, all of whom are farmers. 
Add to this business rates, ridiculous health and safety requirements, crippling final salary pension fund rules, the price of electricity, and the general interference from government in so many aspects of running a private company, and is it any wonder that manufacturing in the UK is on its knees?
In the 47 years I have been a director of the company, I cannot remember having to face such an uncertain future.
Anthony BoneChairman, Standen Engineering LtdEly, Cambridgeshire
SIR – My family has farmed the land for five generations. 
Farmers spend their lives investing, innovating, and striving for efficiency. We work hard, competing globally despite facing far heavier regulations in the UK than many of our competitors. Land – which constitutes the majority of a farm’s value – yields a return of less than two per cent, leaving farmers asset-rich but cash-poor.
We face fluctuating crop, fertiliser, and fuel prices; contend with insurance, taxes, hailstorms, droughts, floods, disease, and machinery breakdowns; and navigate endless paperwork and red tape. Cash must always be conserved in case multiple crises arise simultaneously.
Those in Whitehall seem disconnected from the reality of most farmers’ lives. Yes, they may know of some individuals who have bought farmland for tax purposes. Such cases should be scrutinised, but they are the exception, not the rule. When farmers wake up each day, they do not count the value of their land to celebrate “a tax loophole”, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves described the previous inheritance tax (IHT) rules. They go to work to make ends meet. 
Increasing IHT by halving the agricultural property relief on farms valued at over £1 million (report, November 1) will just force farmers to sell land, jeopardising the viability of family farms – which make up the vast majority of the agricultural sector. 
This feels like a vindictive policy fuelled by misplaced class envy, targeting the so-called “landed classes” – who, in reality, are simply honest agricultural workers.
William MollettUlceby, Lincolnshire
SIR – People need to understand that England’s green and pleasant land was, and still is, created and maintained by farmers and landowners. 
On my humble patch I’ve built three lakes for wildfowl, planted new woods and replanted ancient hedgerows sourced from old maps, all at my own expense. 
Our cattle are used for conservation grazing on sites of special scientific interest and other reserves, in conjunction with Natural England, the Wildlife Trust and our local authority countryside rangers. 
My children will not now be able to follow in my footsteps.
R P LawrenceBayton, Worcestershire
SIR – Landowners are still able to make a potentially exempt transfer to their heirs (ie free from tax) provided the gifter lives for seven years thereafter. 
The problem I found when working in the accounting industry was that owner-occupiers did not wish to lose control, despite their adult sons and daughters working on the farm.
Rodney ButlerBeaminster, Dorset
SIR – If the assisted dying bill is passed, I can imagine the awful conversations that will take place at the bedside in the run-up to April 2027, when the new IHT regime begins. The incentives to encourage someone to take their own life will be enormous.
What a dreadful world we seem to be entering.
Jeremy JacobsStanmore, Middlesex
SIR – We know that tax rules may change – but those changes should not be applied retrospectively.
This has previously been recognised – for example, when new capital gains tax rules were imposed, the Government allowed revaluation, so as to exclude prior gains; and lifetime allowances on pensions had protections for pots previously accumulated. 
The same should be true of IHT.
Paul GladwellNorthwich, Cheshire
SIR – Most of the current Cabinet have only ever worked in the public sector, and have contributed little to the growth of the real economy. 
They just don’t understand private enterprise.
Roger CousinsBeaconsfield, Buckinghamshire 
 
SIR – You report that the Israel Defense Forces “seized 100 terror suspects” in Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza (October 29), which Hamas used as a base for terrorists and a store for their weapons. Where is the condemnation of Hamas’s actions by Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary?
They also remain silent on the testimony of a Palestinian ambulance driver detailing how terrorists are using ambulances for their fighters, at the expense of civilians.
It is more important, it seems, to blast the Israeli government for banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from its soil (Letters, November 1). This being the UN agency that sacked nine staff members after it found they “may have been” involved in the October 7 massacre. 
Labour’s attitude to Israel is deplorable.
Bill ToddWhitton, Middlesex
 
SIR – I see that David Goldstone, the chairman of the Government’s new Office for Value for Money, is to be paid the equivalent of a £247,000 annual salary (report, November 1), and work on average only one day a week.
Mr Goldstone oversaw the delivery of the London Olympics – which cost almost four times the initial estimate – and is involved in the increasingly expensive HS2 project. Is he the best person for the job?
John DeeleyBurton-on-Trent, East Staffordshire
SIR – I suggest that David Goldstone’s first task is to reduce his salary and work for less money.
Stephen HoweyWoodford Green, Essex
SIR – On the face of it, David Goldstone’s daily rate of £950 sounds high. But if you consider that a reasonably experienced solicitor can charge over £500 an hour – a daily rate of almost £4,000 – it doesn’t seem quite so bad after all.
Arthur BayleyTyldesley, Lancashire
 
SIR – It’s not just the BBC’s coverage of the Leeds International Piano Competition (Letters, November 1) that has declined – the whole arts output of the BBC seems to have been dumbed down in the last few years.
The Young Musicians performances are now interrupted by talking heads; there is a complete dearth of decent drama being produced; and BBC4 bombards us nightly with ancient classic sitcoms, rather than new material. 
The “off” button on our remote control is being deployed earlier and earlier each evening.
Barbara SolomonsLondon NW4
SIR – Condensing eight days of the Leeds International Piano Competition into a two-hour recording was outrageous.
However, since it was broadcast more than five weeks after the event, I was able to search for the results online and impress my wife by tipping both the winner and the runner-up.
Stan LabovitchWindsor, Berkshire
 
SIR – Your report (October 30) on British Airways’s “crackpot” cost-cutting exercise doesn’t surprise me. 
I recently travelled to and from Johannesburg in business class on the A380, and was appalled at the seat configuration. At the age of 74, having chosen a window seat, I did not expect to have to climb over another passenger to get to the aisle. I was also very disappointed with the service, which didn’t compare to Asian airlines. Will BA survive as a business? I doubt it.
B HughesHaslemere, Surrey
SIR – I question how British Airways, our flagship airline, can be ranked 19th in your list of the world’s best airlines (Travel, telegraph.co.uk, October 16). 
During one of my 18 telephone calls to its so-called helpline, I was informed by an agent that “management does not talk to customers”. Letters to its complaints department produce an AI-generated response, and its website takes you round in circles and back to the helpline.
Wendy BentallChobham, Surrey
 
SIR – Last winter I did not get round to clearing the flower beds of fallen leaves. When I finally tackled it in the spring I was amazed to find a hibernating hedgehog (Letters, November 1) under a particularly large pile of leaves.  
This year I will allow the leaves to remain, in the hope that they will provide shelter again. 
Paula MacpheeNewmarket, Suffolk
SIR – Your editorial on the plight of the hedgehog population (Leading Article, October 29) brought to mind an evening a few years ago, when my husband was having a stroll in the garden.  
He came rushing into the house looking quite alarmed, believing we had intruders in the garden, given the eruption of an infernal noise.  Grabbing a torch we crept out – only to see two hedgehogs mating, loudly.  
They were certainly not amused to be spied on, but nevertheless continued to do their duty for the salvation of their species.
Sheila Williams Ascot, Berkshire 
 
SIR – In 1971 I was five and on a flight over Brazil with mum, dad and my teddy (Letters, October 30) when the plane filled with noxious fumes. The captain announced that we should prepare for an emergency landing.  
Luckily, we were near Sao Paolo airport. The plane landed safely, the emergency slide deployed and we rushed from our seats to evacuate the plane.  
To my horror, I looked back and saw my dad turn and head deeper into the plane.  
From the ground, I then watched dad sliding down, clutching my beloved teddy.  
He has been by my side ever since. 
Karen Connelly Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
 
SIR – In the 1990s there was a fad for examining handwriting (Letters, November 1) as part of the job application process.
I wrote to a business magazine to advise that this breached disability equality legislation, as it discriminated against people like me, who have extremely limited manual dexterity due to a range of neurodegenerative, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. 
My letter was published and won their “Letter of the Month” competition. 
As a prize I was sent a fountain pen. 
Anne Jappie Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
 
We accept letters by email and post. Please include name, address, work and home telephone numbers. ADDRESS: 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT EMAIL: [email protected] FOLLOW: Telegraph Letters @LettersDesk NEWSLETTER: sign up to receive Letters to the Editor here