Government urged to do right thing and reverse ‘family farm tax’

Angry farmers left reeling from Labour’s Budget are calling on the Government to quickly reverse what they are describing as an “awful” family farm tax.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said Britain’s farmers and growers will take part in a mass lobby of their MPs following the plans outlined on Wednesday.

According to Budget papers, from April 2026 farmers will be able to claim a 100% relief from inheritance tax on the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business assets, falling to 50% beyond that.

The Government is “restricting the generosity of agricultural relief” in a bid to make the inheritance tax system “fairer”.

It will also put almost £600 million towards flood defences and farm schemes in 2024/25, but warned “it is necessary to review these plans” for future years.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “Farmers and growers have been left reeling from the changes announced in the Budget which demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of how the British farming sector is shaped and managed.”

Mr Bradshaw, who is meeting Environment Secretary Steve Reed on Monday, said the current plans to change Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) “need to be overturned and fast”.

Mr Bradshaw added: “Farmers are rightly angry and concerned about their future and for the future of their family farms, having been reassured by minsters in the lead up to the budget that APR and BPR changes were not on the table.

“The Treasury’s figures which claim this will only affect one in four British farms are misleading.

“The £1 million cap to APR shows how little this Government understands the sector. Very few viable farms would be worth under £1 million, but lots of smallholdings and houses with a few acres let for grazing might be.

“The asset value of genuine food-producing farms will be high, given the size they need to be to remain viable businesses; but that’s the value of the asset, it doesn’t reflect its profitability which is often, and increasingly so, very low.

“It’s clear the Government does not understand that family farms are not only small farms, and that just because a farm is an asset it doesn’t mean those who work it are wealthy.

“I have said, every penny the Chancellor saves from this will come directly from the next generation having to break up their family farm. It simply mustn’t happen.

“MPs need to understand the consequences of these actions which is why we are mobilising our members for a mass lobby in the coming weeks.

“British farmers will ask their MPs to look them in the eye and tell them whether they support this.

“There’s still time for the government to accept they’ve got this wrong, and my message to ministers is that they should do the right thing and reverse this awful Family Farm Tax.”

The Conservative Party has claimed farmers will have to stump up hundreds of thousands of pounds under Labour’s inheritance tax plans.

Shadow business secretary Kevin Hollinrake warned Labour MPs who intend to have a pint in a local pub and a chat with farmers this weekend to “think again”, while Greg Smith, Conservative MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, described the Budget as a “full-frontal financial attack on our farmers”.

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesman, had previously criticised changes to the agricultural property relief, warning of a “death knell” for farmers.

The issue was repeatedly raised in the House of Commons on Thursday and Business minister Douglas Alexander defended the Government’s reforms of inheritance tax, saying “difficult and necessary choices” had to be made.