Write to letters@thetimes.co.ukSir, Sympathy seems to be aligning with the farming community but small and medium-sized family businesses, which face a similar dilemma, seem to have been forgotten, despite being significant innovators and employers. I am the major shareholder and chairman of a successful group of family companies that have been passed down through five generations without the burden of inheritance tax, allowing them to be nurtured and improved, and providing jobs and incomes for hundreds of staff and their families as well as my three sons, who have joined the business. The staff and the companies have paid countless millions of pounds in tax over the years, providing the government with a stable source of income. We are a UK manufacturer, exporting to
