News Farmland
'Government must be more forceful in land purchases'
Reforming tax breaks and subsidies for agriculture is necessary to moderate rising land prices. This is the recommendation of the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) in its advisory report "Land for Improvement: On the Role of Land in Rural Areas."
The RLi presented the report today to outgoing Minister of Agriculture Femke Wiersma. In the report, the council states that various tax schemes and financial support are ineffective. Currently, the government is actually driving land price increases with these schemes, the report concludes.
Adjustments should make agricultural land less attractive as an investment. "For farmers who hold land for retirement, the government would be better off designing a pension scheme. This could be funded with money the government currently spends on tax exemptions," the council advises.
The RLi notes that the government is trying to solve rural problems with a budget. The retirement schemes are cited as an example. In the report, the council advises the government to make greater use of environmental policy, including spatial planning instruments.
Through robust redistribution of rural areas, the government can better distinguish between productive agriculture and social agriculture. The latter combines food production and social services. According to the council, only tax benefits and subsidies should be allocated to the latter.
Use of expropriation
To achieve this, RLi recommends using land consolidation, expropriation, preferential rights, and a land bank. These instruments should steer the land market in a different direction. High land prices and low land mobility hinder an effective approach to social challenges, the report concludes.
The council notes that provinces, water boards, and municipalities are not using land instruments sufficiently to force farmers to relinquish land. "They prefer voluntary land exchanges or, in the case of land purchases, 'amicable acquisition,' or voluntary sale. This works well for simple tasks. But for complex tasks, this caution often hinders achieving a result that adds value in the long run."
John Ramaker
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