As a farmer, let me explain why we are DOOMED as a country if we don’t change course – James Wright

We are doomed. Seriously. As a country, bureaucracy will doom us if we do not change course.

I am a first-generation farmer – I farm beef and sheep on a part-owned, part-rented farm on Exmoor in Devon. I live in a small, house built in 1992 for a farm worker, alongside my wife and two children. We are expecting our third baby in the Spring. Like many farmers, I work as well farm, managing a UK agricultural technology company.

Back in June, we were full of excitement as we applied for planning permission to add a bedroom and an open-plan kitchen/dining room to our home. With a new baby arriving in the spring, it felt like the right time to upgrade our farm worker’s house—built 30 years ago—to make it fit for family life for the next 30 years.

Today, after months of delays, countless extensions, and endless back-and-forth, our council has indicated they would refuse our application.

The decision is devastating—not just emotionally, as we prepare for our third child—but financially, too. We’ve already spent thousands upon thousands of pounds on surveys and planning consultants. With no realistic path forward, we’ve withdrawn the application.

But the nightmare doesn’t end there. The council is now threatening enforcement action over the agricultural tie on our house because I work in addition to farming. Let that sink in we’re a family of four, soon to be five, not only facing a lack of space for our growing family but now the possibility of being evicted from our home—or facing yet more thousands in fees to fight it.

This is bureaucracy at its most perverse. It has a pathological aversion to anything outside the norm—anything that dares challenge the status quo. It’s the same mindset that led the Treasury to recommend Labour implement the “family farm tax”. They either didn’t understand—or didn’t care—that farms have been exempt from inheritance tax not as a loophole but as a necessity. Family farms cannot survive such burdens, and Labour politicians didn’t know better to stop them.

I’m a 32-year-old first-generation farmer. We own 34 acres and rent another 120. I have two children in the local school and a third on the way. We run 45 suckler cows and a flock of sheep. I work off-farm to ensure we can keep the lights on and food on the table. Surely, I’m the kind of person policy should be designed to support?

And yet, here we are—trapped in a system that seems designed to crush people like us. The “experts” will say I should keep quiet, keep my head down, and not draw attention. But that’s exactly why systems persist. It’s how bullies and jobsworths thrive, and why meaningful change never happens.

I ran for Parliament in July because I believe we need more people in Westminster who have built businesses, understand what it’s like to raise a young family in modern Britain, and know the relentless challenges rural communities face.

But it’s not just about fighting bureaucracy—it’s about rebuilding a system that values productivity, supports families, and helps rural communities thrive. We need policies that reward hard work, innovation, and resilience — not ones that punish it.

One day, I’ll be asked what drove me to push for radical change in the way our government operates. Moments like this will be my answer —moments when the system that should be helping families like mine instead chooses to stand in the way of our future. It doesn’t have to be this way. With courage and the right leadership, we can create a government that works for people, not against them.

James Wright is a first-generation farmer raising beef cattle and sheep with his wife and children on Exmoor. As the UK director of a technology company, James empowers thousands of rural businesses to boost productivity and profitability. A passionate advocate for rural Britain, he is a former parliamentary candidate and serves as Director of Policy at the Conservative Rural Forum, championing the future of rural communities and our countryside.