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Farmers’ leaders have appealed to the UK prime minister to seek their advice and postpone changes to the agricultural inheritance tax. The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) President, Tom Bradshaw, has advised MPs that farmers were willing to cooperate with the government in finding new ways to decrease the impact of the policy. On Wednesday, protestors drove tractors through Westminster and staged another demonstration against the Budget. In addition, the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, urged the prime minister to “change course and recognise the vital role that British family farms play”.
However, the Labour Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, argued that the vast majority of farmers would not be affected by the proposed tax changes. Under the Budget, from April 2026, inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m, previously exempt, will be liable to inheritance tax (IHT) at 20% – half the normal rate. It would only affect a small proportion of farmers, according to the prime minister’s spokesman.
Farmers’ leaders, including Victoria Vyvyan of the Country Land and Business Association and Robert Martin of the Tenant Farmers Association, appeared before MPs on Wednesday. Mr Bradshaw recommended that changes to the tax should focus on personal wealth rather than business wealth. He told MPs that working together could lead to a “very different proposal than the one that’s on the table”, adding “this is a lifetime of work, it’s the heritage and the custodianship of their farm”.
Agricultural estates earn a rate of return of only about 0.5% to 1%, according to a partner at law firm Howes Percival, Stuart Maggs. He told MPs that agricultural estates could become unaffordable and farms would have to sell land or even sell up due to budget proposals. A tax expert, Dr Arun Advani, remarked that farmland’s IHT rate was “still much more attractive than other sorts of assets” and warned it could fuel competition between people who want to buy up agricultural land and genuine farmers who are expanding
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