‘Naive’ Rachel Reeves slammed over Britain’s most hated tax as Labour hits families hard | UK | News
Third-generation farmer Charlotte Cleveley says her parents’ cattle farm would no longer exist had she not diversified its income revenues. Repurposing the 50-acre orchard has allowed the family to continue raising beef while offering rural retreats at their two ensuite shepherd huts, four bell tents, and a three-acre camping site.
Repurposing the 50-acre orchard allowed the family to continue breeding cattle while also opening the site up to a Mencap charity supporting adults with additional needs – a cause close to their hearts since her brother, Sam, 52, was born with cerebral palsy. Charlotte, her fiancé Matt Wood, 38, her mother Linda, and Sam all live and work on the farm. Matt also runs his own contracting business.
“In 2016, I came up with the idea of putting bell tents on the field as it was the lowest investment option needed to start a glamping site,” she explains. “Without creating a new job for me on the farm, there wouldn’t have been one at all. My mum is now 72 and without my dad, who died in 2017, she wouldn’t have been able to manage alone or have afforded to employ help. “This way we can help each other as both aspects are seasonal, so when the glamping goes quiet, we focus on the cattle and vice versa.”
While The Apple Farm in Snitterfield, Warwickshire, is now a thriving holiday village, a stay at the working farm in a dome-shaped bell tent or en-suite shepherd hut costs from £125 per night.
“Rachel Reeves is naive and must have had some very bad advice if she believes changes to the inheritance tax won’t affect small farms,” says Charlotte about the impact Labour’s reforms have had on small holdings like hers. “My farm would have been sold off a long time ago without the changes we made, and I know of farmers in their 80s and 90s whose farms will have to be sold after their death to pay the tax rather than being passed down to family who have probably spent their whole lives working there.”
And it’s not only the farmers who will suffer, as Labour has also stopped mid-tier stewardship incentives that allow farms to host groups of adults with additional needs – a scheme known as a care farm that Charlotte says is of huge benefit to the whole community.
The Apple Farm hosts stays from Mencap, a charity supporting adults with learning difficulties. “It’s close to our hearts as my brother has cerebral palsy and there are proved benefits for people like him to be outside and get involved with nature,” she says. “We host a weekly Mencap group, and soon the funding for that will stop. There is very little provision for those over 18 with special needs, so the last thing they should be doing is cutting this as well – they need more, not less.
“It is incredible to see the benefit to the guys who come down, they plant seeds, jump on the lawnmower and help with the care of the animals. But as of June, it will stop. Because of our personal connection, we will do everything we can to keep the care farm going and bring the joy of being outside with nature to as many people as we can.”
