Thousands of disgruntled British farmers marched on London on Tuesday in protest at government plans to change the law regarding the amount of inheritance tax farmers should pay.
The demonstrations saw tractors driven by farmers and coach loads of other agricultural workers from the United Kingdom’s four nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland descend on Parliament Square, to stage a large-scale protest in bitterly cold temperatures as leaders from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) met with MPs at Westminster.
One protester, Kieron Goodall-Lomax, a sheep farmer from Derbyshire, northern Midlands, told The London Standard weekly that plans to raise revenue by imposing inheritance tax changes on farming assets bore the hallmarks of an out-of-touch Labour Party government which “does not understand the countryside”.
“This is just going to break up family farms and really put a lot of pressure on an industry facing quite a lot of difficulty,” added Goodall-Lomax.
How is the UK government changing inheritance tax for farmers?
The new Labour-led British government, which won a landslide victory in July’s UK general election, wasted little time in ringing in the changes after 14 years as the country’s official opposition to the previously ruling Conservative Party.
Among the reforms announced by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves in last month’s budget were plans to make inheritance tax payable on farms worth more than 1 million pounds ($1.27m).
Under the 1992 Agricultural Property Relief (APR) scheme, farms had previously been exempt from paying any inheritance tax, but, from April 2026, inherited farming assets worth more than 1 million pounds will be subject to a 20 percent tax – half the standard 40 percent inheritance tax rate applied to other land and property owned by private citizens which is worth more than 325,000 pounds ($412,000).
Why are British farmers upset about inheritance taxes?
As English sheep farmer Goodall-Lomax suggests, agricultural workers fear government reforms to inheritance tax could sound the death knell for many of the UK’s longstanding farming communities.
They contend that many of those inheriting bequeathed agricultural assets worth more than 1 million pounds will be forced to sell their family farms in order to pay the new 20 percent levy, thus threatening Britain’s food provision.
This is because while the land owned by many farming families is very valuable, they do not always earn a high income from which to pay the new inheritance taxes.
Indeed, shadow secretary of state for environment, Victoria Atkins, one of a number of Conservative politicians supporting the stance taken by UK farmers, highlighted the precarious financial state of many farms when she told the BBC’s Today programme that “farmers can be asset rich, but cash poor.
“They are not in it for the money – it’s a 365-day responsibility,” she added.
Why does the UK government want to tax farmers more?
The Labour government wants to generate more money for the country’s cash-strapped institutions, such as the National Health Service (NHS), and estimates that up to 520 million pounds ($660m) a year could be raised from this reform of inheritance tax.
In a joint statement, the chancellor and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed said: “Farmers are the backbone of Britain, and we recognise the strength of feeling expressed by farming and rural communities in recent weeks. We are steadfast in our commitment to Britain’s farming industry because food security is national security.”
They added: “But with public services crumbling and a £22bn [$28bn] fiscal hole that this Government inherited, we have taken difficult decisions. The reforms to Agricultural Property Relief ensure that wealthier estates and the most valuable farms pay their fair share to invest in our schools and health services that farmers and families in rural communities rely on.”
Reeves also insists that 72 percent of British farms will be unaffected by the change – but this is fiercely disputed.
Who disputes that few farmers will be affected and why?
The NFU, for one. It contends that, based on figures from the government’s own Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), a full 66 percent of the UK’s 209,000 farms are worth more than 1 million pounds and will therefore qualify for the tax.
According to reports, the UK Treasury based its 72 percent figure on past claims for APR, but not on farming assets claimed under Business Property Relief (BPR) – another inheritance tax relief scheme, which, under plans by the government, will also face reform, meaning that a combined cap of 1 million pounds will apply to both initiatives.
Thus, says the NFU, the Treasury has grossly underestimated the true number of UK farms worth more than 1 million pounds, and contends that the Defra figure is the more accurate of the two.
Last week, Jeremy Moody from the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) wrote scathingly of government plans in a CAAV e-briefing:
“For ministers to see an APR claim as the sum total of a farm is to miss the point that APR is only about land and buildings, leaving machinery, livestock, deadstock, other farming assets and diversified activities for BPR … The lack of data given for BPR claims is concerning when we seek an informed debate.”
Despite the controversy, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who suffered an embattled first 100 days in office, has refused to reverse the policy and, in an interview with the BBC, said he remains “very confident that the vast majority of farms will be totally unaffected”.
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