Environment Secretary Steve Reed has accepted he owes landowners an explanation for The Labour Government’s decision to scrap 100% to agricultural inheritance tax relief after promising a year ago there would be ‘no change.’

How things are and how things look can be two radically different things.

But managing the way things look to people is a critical skill for a government engaged in bringing about change.

And the optics following the introduction of a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural assets worth over £1m, introduced in last month’s Budget, are terrible.

It doesn’t matter how many Treasury number-crunchers line up to tell the rural community that the change will affect just a small number of farming families, the message could not be any clearer to those affected.

Many farmers and landowners thought they’d had a raw deal from the Conservatives and hoped for better from Labour.

In the first Labour Budget for 14 years, delivered on Wednesday (Oct 30) many will have felt let down once more.

With so much asked of them, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to suggest modern landowners should be afforded some respect – admiration even.

Specialist PR and communications for housebuilders might not seem, at first sight, to be a top priority

Yet strategic communications, delivered consistently throughout the whole housebuilding operation are key to educating, engaging and enticing target audiences, as well as meeting business objectives.

The Conservatives’ decision to effectively scrap housing targets has been reversed and councils must now produce detailed plans with proposals about how they will deliver the extra homes – or face government intervention.

It’s no accident that, just hours after the Labour Party unveiled its election manifesto, with big plans to fast-track planning applications and build 1.5 million new homes over five years, it also issued a pledge to preserve the countryside.

What are the big issues that rural voters, including landowners, farmers and rural estate owners, will want to hear about from politicians, as the General Election date draws closer?

The latest challenge for the men and women who make their living producing food and caring for the landscape looks like it is coming from supermarkets concerned about the environment and the ability of the soil to keep on producing food.

Telling stories is one of the oldest forms of human communication. From earliest times, when tales were told around the fire blazing at the entrance to the cave, to today’s Hollywood blockbusters and social media reels, stories that grab the imagination and touch us, emotionally, can have the most powerful and profound impact.

The rural economy beats to a different drum. Political squabbling, generated in the Westminster bubble and hotly debated inside the M25, doesn’t mean a lot in the countryside, where farmers and land managers operate in tune with the weather and the seasons.

When farmers and commoners gathered for a meeting on Dartmoor in September, to discuss new restrictions on livestock levels, the overriding emotions in the room were anger and bewilderment.

The importance of communicating the value of rural business was a key theme of this year’s CLA Business Conference, at a time of unprecedented change in the countryside.

Jeremy Hunt sought to boost business investment and support those who work hard in his Autumn Statement yesterday.  Housebuilders and landowners were hoping for concrete policies to lift the sector.  They were offered a few headline pledges, but it’ll take time to find out if they work.

King Charles’ first speech as monarch at the opening of Parliament had at least as much significance as a historical event, as it did a political one.

How do you meet the demands of a growing population, providing enough houses to put a roof over everyone’s head, while at the same time cleaning up our rivers and making more space for wildlife?

Landed Estates have a valuation measured in monetary terms, but they also have a social value that reflects all the benefits they bring to their communities. They need to be bold about explaining those benefits, both in their communities and to the wider world.