The president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has said he is “absolutely baffled” at the Government’s decision to “double down” on inheritance tax on farms.
Tom 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”.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Bradshaw spoke of “the tension, the anger, the frustration” among farming communities.
But Mr Reed said that the plans outlined in Wednesday’s Budget are a “fair and balanced approach that protects family farms while also fixing the public services those same families rely on”.
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.
(1/9)🚨'Family farm tax' must be reversed🚨
— National Farmers' Union (@NFUtweets) October 31, 2024
NFU President Tom Bradshaw (@ProagriLtd) updates on NFU action after changes to APR and BPR were announced in the budget which could severely impact British farmers and growers.
Read more👉https://t.co/mHPtGJ0MZf#BackBritishFarming pic.twitter.com/n70dGKVkLA
The Government is “restricting the generosity of agricultural relief” to make the inheritance tax system “fairer”.
Writing for The Daily Telegraph on Friday, Mr Reed said: “I completely understand farmers’ anxiety at any changes. But rural communities need a better NHS, affordable housing and public transport we can provide if we make the system fairer.
“That is why the Labour Government has announced plans to reform agricultural property relief.
“Only the richest estates will be asked to pay, not small, family farms as some misleading headlines have claimed.
“Look at the detail and you’ll see that the vast majority of farmers will not be affected at all.
“They will be able to pass the family farm down to their children just as previous generations have always done.”
After reading Mr Reed’s article, Mr Bradshaw said: “Looks like they’ve decided they’re going to double down, which I’m absolutely baffled by.”
Labour’s #FamilyFarmTax will stop farms being passed to the next generation:
— Steve Barclay (@SteveBarclay) October 31, 2024
🚜Threatening our food security
🧑🌾 Risking jobs
🌾Leading to food prices rising
Sign the petition to stop this 👇https://t.co/vL3A35gGgT
Mr Bradshaw said he has never seen the farming industry in the position it is in at the moment, and while this has built up over the last four or five years, he said: “Today the tension, the anger, the frustration, it is so, so tangible.
“We will work with the Government to find a resolution, but I just hope that resolution is forthcoming.”
He added: “I just think that what our members are saying to us is this is a Government that doesn’t understand farming.
“They’ve shown us with this budget they just don’t understand what we do to produce the country’s food.”
He said farmers are deemed to be wealthy because they have an asset, but pointed out that the return from that asset is “very, very low”.
Mr Bradshaw added: “I think there’s a real anger in the countryside that this Government is demonstrating that they don’t understand the farming industry.
“I was so pleased when I saw the Labour manifesto. Those words ‘Food security is national security’ are so important, but those words don’t feed people.
“It’s the family farms across the United Kingdom that produce people’s food and are going to be adversely impacted by this change.
“And I really hope that the Government can see that they’ve got this wrong.”
The NFU said Britain’s farmers and growers will take part in a mass lobby of their MPs over the plans on November 19 and Mr Bradshaw said it is already “massively oversubscribed”.
While Mr Reed referred to “misleading” headlines, the NFU has used the same word to describe Treasury figures.
Mr Bradshaw said he does not understand the Treasury’s figures, adding: “At a time of huge turmoil in the industry, with all the changes since Brexit, since Covid and the Ukrainian crisis, and all the inflation, to bring this change in now, especially when the Secretary of State has talked publicly about understanding the pressures on the industry, the mental health challenges that the industry is facing, and then they brought this change in.
“I really do not understand who has done the modelling or how they’ve got to this decision.”
The issue has been repeatedly raised in the House of Commons and business minister Douglas Alexander defended the Government’s reforms of inheritance tax, saying “difficult and necessary choices” had to be made.
