The Prime Minister is facing calls to fully axe the inheritance tax raid on farmers
Andy Burnham is under pressure from farmers over the inheritance tax raid (Image: Getty)
Farmers have made a last-ditch plea to Andy Burnham to U-turn on the inheritance tax raid in the budget. They urged the Prime Minister to fully axe the hated levy, warning it threatens farms that have passed down from generation to generation.
After a partial climbdown, they now hope for a full reprieve as they struggle with price rises, harsh weather and poor harvests.
Arable farmer Olly Harrison said the tax “started the death of the family farm”. He added: “It desperately needs some life support, and hopefully the next Budget will deliver that.”
Third-generation farmer Martin Williams said the PM has “one chance to put things right”. The 61-year-old from Herefordshire, said the tax “sits like a cloud over the whole of farming”.
The inheritance tax changes have sparked an ongoing backlash from farmers (Image: Getty)
Farms were exempt from inheritance tax until then-Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her 2024 Budget that they would be subject to a 20% levy above a £1million threshold.
A furious backlash led to the threshold being raised to £2.5million last December, or £5million for married couples.
But there is hope that further changes could be announced in next week’s Budget as Mr Burnham looks to mend ties with farmers.
Mr Harrison, 45, from Merseyside, who has a YouTube channel about farming to help fund vital equipment, said the tax was a devastating blow at a time when those growing the nation’s food are already struggling.
He said: “At the moment farmers have had a real kicking from the weather and from previous Budgets.
“It would be nice to see some change on inheritance tax, hopefully completely scrapped, to make agriculture investable again.
“It’s just stalled the whole industry, no one has wanted to invest, then we’ve had two horrendous harvests since.”
Sandy Wade-Gery’s Bedfordshire farm, Bushmead, has been in his family since 1536 – but he fears it would be lost to the next generation if the tax stays in place.
Mr Wade-Gery, 76, said: “My son William is the fifteenth William at Bushmead. Unless the new inheritance tax on family farms is abolished, I fear he will be the last.
“This tax threatens to break up what generations have patiently woven together.”
Farms tend to be asset-rich due to the value of land and machinery, which is included in the threshold figure, yet they are often cash-poor.
Explaining why farms worth over £1million could be lost if they were subject to inheritance tax, Mr Wade-Gery said: “A family farm is not cash in the bank.
“It is land, buildings and decades of investment earning a modest return, and after recent years of extreme weather, many of us are struggling simply to break even.
“When a tax bill falls due on a death, the only way to pay it is to sell land. Sell enough, and the farm is no longer viable. Then the rest goes too. And with the land goes something that can never be bought back: generations of skill and knowledge of particular fields, soils and seasons, handed down from parent to child.”
Mr Wade-Gery said of his farm, which has been in the family for almost 500 years: “I don’t really want this all to be lost on my watch. I just don’t want to lose what we’ve built up over the years, and I can’t really see any way round it.”
Gareth Wyn Jones, 59, from North Wales, who stars in BBC One’s The Family Farm, said: “With so many ongoing problems in the agricultural sector, I think the least this government could do would be to scrap the whole inheritance tax for every single family farm. If they want food security and less food inflation, they need to get behind British agriculture and start to show that they are backing us as much as we are feeding them.
“Let’s hope they see sense and start to look at abolishing this whole ludicrous inheritance tax scheme.”
Farmer Sandy Wade-Gery and his son William (Image: DX)
The Tories and Reform UK have both pledged to reverse the 2024 changes to inheritance tax if they win the next general election.
Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins urged an end to the levy, saying: “Farming families will neither forgive nor forget the stress they have endured.
“But scrapping these taxes would give them certainty for the future of their farms, and lift one burden as they recover from the worst harvest on record while facing higher fuel prices, the jobs tax and the fertiliser tax.”
Reform’s Robert Jenrick said: “This vindictive tax has been a disaster. Rachel Reeves’s terrible legacy must be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
Tory frontbencher Victoria Atkins is demanding a full U-turn (Image: Getty)
Mo Metcalf-Fisher, director of external affairs at the Countryside Alliance, said: “The family farm tax continues to put too many farmers through unnecessary stress and anxiety. Scrapping it in its entirety would be the right thing to do.”
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “While we welcomed the concessions that have been made [on the tax threshold], some family farms still face substantial tax bills.
“This is stifling investment and could break up food producing businesses at a time of global instability and climate pressures.”
Speaking in June before he entered 10 Downing Street as the new PM, Mr Burnham suggested he would look again at the inheritance tax raid on family farms.
Former Labour minister Lord Blunkett, a mentor to Mr Burnham, last month declared that the controversial levy was a “mistake”, while Labour MP Markus Campbell-Savours has called for it to be completely ditched.
The Daily Express is demanding a full U-turn with our Save Britain’s Family Farms crusade.
A government spokesman said: “We value our hardworking farmers and recognise the pressures they are under.We listened to farmers and raised the relief threshold to £2.5million to protect smaller family farms and businesses, while ensuring the largest estates make a fair contribution.”
Comment by shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins
Nearly two years ago, Labour broke its election promise to rural communities and made family farms and family businesses its first target, introducing the family farm and family business taxes to fund benefits for others.
It was the start of a pernicious attack on the rural way of life. Tens of thousands left the countryside to protest outside No10 against these death taxes, which threatened farms and businesses that had survived for generations.
Alongside Express readers, the Conservatives stood with farmers. We protested, proved Labour’s costings wrong, shared the heartbreaking stories of affected families, and forced vote after vote in the Commons.
Our collective effort produced one of the most humiliating u-turns of Keir Starmer’s leadership. Labour slipped it out the day before Christmas Eve, hoping nobody would notice, and raised the threshold. Farmers and the Conservatives noticed, and made clear it did not go nearly far enough.
Since then, more than nine in ten farmers have halted investment, and 87% say their profits have been significantly hit. The government is already presiding over record farm closures.
Last week, the Conservatives forced the eighth vote on these taxes. Labour MPs again failed the countryside by voting to keep them.
But with the Budget less than ten days away, there is still time for the new Prime Minister to deliver on his promise to “build back trust” with farming communities.
Number 10 insiders suggest the tax could be abolished or watered down. If true, it would be a huge admission that the government got this policy wrong.
Farming families will neither forgive nor forget the stress they have endured. But scrapping these taxes would give them certainty for the future of their farms, and lift one burden as they recover from the worst harvest on record while facing higher fuel prices, the jobs tax and the fertiliser tax.
This matters to us all. In an increasingly dangerous world, we need farmers to grow the food we eat, not sell up.
Enough is enough. Andy Burnham must axe these vindictive taxes in their entirety.
If he doesn’t, the Conservatives will scrap them when we return to government.