Family Farm Tax

I am extremely concerned by the Government’s announcement in the Budget to make changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) which is being referred to as the Family Farm Tax. I, therefore, voted on 4 December in support of the Official Opposition’s motion which called for a reverse to this vindictive tax.

The Government announced in the Budget a number of measures which will negatively impact farming and rural communities such as speeding up the delinking of payments, introducing a fertiliser tax and changes to APR and BPR. The changes to APR and BPR will mean that from 6 April 2026, the full 100 per cent relief from inheritance tax will be restricted to the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property. Above this amount, farmers will pay inheritance tax at 20 per cent.

Farming organisations including the National Farmers Union, Countryside Alliance, Tenant Farmers Association and The Country Land and Business Association have all raised serious concerns about the harm this will cause to family farms and tenant farmers. The Central Association of Agricultural Valuers has also recently reported that up to 75,000 individual owners of farming businesses could expect to be affected over the coming generation, before considering the effect of inflation due to this change. That is the equivalent of five times the Government’s figure of 500 affected for the single year of 2026/27. They go on to say that “even allowing for almost any plausible margin of error, it is reasonable for large numbers of farmers to expect to be adversely affected.”

We should, therefore, be under no illusion these changes will see family farms split up and sold off. Families will lose their livelihoods and homes and there is no guarantee land sold will be used to grow food risking food prices increases, more food being imported, and the countryside being concreted over. Even before coming into force, the Family Farm Tax is sadly already causing some farms to close, impacting inflation and hitting our food prices.