UK Nature and Environment

390 readers

44 users here now

General Instance Rules:

No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
Do not spam or abuse network features.

Community Specific Rules:

Keep posts UK-specific. There are other places on Lemmy to post articles which relate to global environmental issues (e.g. slrpnk.net).
Keep comments in English so that they can be appropriately moderated.

Note: Our temporary logo is from The Wildlife Trusts. We are not officially associated with them.

Our autumn banner is a shot of maple leaves by Hossenfeffer.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Kim

GreyShuck

Billionaires Who Rewild the UK Are Set to Get an Inheritance Tax Break (archive.ph)

submitted 8 months ago by GreyShuck to c/nature

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Billionaires and other investors who rewild agricultural land in the UK may no longer be liable for inheritance tax on the property when they die thanks to changes announced in the budget.

UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expanding the type of land that’s exempt from the levy to include some projects such as turning farmland back into forests, managing grassland for flood resilience or connecting river and floodplain habitats. The tax break comes into effect in April of next year and only applies to land managed under an environmental agreement involving the UK government or other approved bodies.

Original link

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Jho 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

My cynical ass cannot stop my eyes rolling into the back of my head when I see "tax breaks for billionaires". But I'll try to put that entire ugly can of worms to the side for now.

Ultimately the devil will be in the details as to how this is implemented, and unfortunately at this stage it seems there's not a whole lot of information as to exactly this will work. From the article: "There’s still uncertainty around how the government will approve eligibility for the projects. [...] adding more guidance is due to be provided in the near future."

I've got so many questions. Like, how much of the land has to be rewilded? Will this land be regularly monitored and checked? How are we going to decide whether or not a plot of land has been sufficiently rewilded? Can the landowner do any sort of rewilding even if it's unsuitable for the surrounding area and it's needs? Is there anything to stop someone from simply creating a monoculture conifer forest, which doesn't provide a great benefit for wildlife?

Are there any measures in place to stop land owners from demolishing these rewilded areas after it no longer becomes profitable to keep them that way? Can someone just create a monoculture conifer forest and then cut it down for timber once the inheretance has gone through on the land? Is there going to be a cap on the tax break itself? If the tax break ends up saving more money than the cost of rewilding an area and then demolishing it afterwards then this is just going to be another way for billionaires to dodge taxes whilst contributing nothing to the UK.

I'm skeptical to say the least.