East farmer says autumn budget changes will 'cripple fabric of rural farming'
The National Farmers Union says growers will lobby MPs on November 19th to highlight the 'devastating impact of this budget on their farms'
A farmer in the East is telling us that changes made to inheritance tax in the autumn budget will 'cripple the fabric of rural farming communities and the wider agricultural industry'.
Rachel Reeves announced last week that, from April 2026, families will have to pay a 50% tax on farm and business assets worth over a million pounds when they're passed on to the next generation.
"Confidence is low within the industry and this has been absolutely nothing to reinforce it"
Nick Deane is from the NFU, which represents farmers in Suffolk: "Before the budget, I told you that morale was at an all-time low in farming. This budget has given us a real smack in the teeth, especially when it comes to the inheritance tax changes."
He told us about what the future of farming looks like now: "Uncertain.
"Confidence is low within the industry and this has been absolutely nothing to reinforce it. The commitments from Labour in the election were that they valued farming and that food production was a valued part of the rural community.
"This has done the polar opposite."
"Farmers are rightly angry and concerned about their future"
The National Farmers Union says growers will lobby MPs on November 19th to highlight the 'devastating impact of this budget on their farms'.
The NFU has also warned that the changes announced in the Budget could increase food costs to consumers, adding pressure to many still experiencing the cost-of-living crisis.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “Farmers and growers have been left reeling from the changes announced in the budget which demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of how the British farming sector is shaped and managed. The current plans to change Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief need to be overturned and fast.
“Farmers are rightly angry and concerned about their future and the future of their family farms, having been reassured by minsters in the lead up to the Budget that APR and BPR changes were not on the table.
“The Treasury’s figures which claim this will only affect one in four British farms are misleading.
The £1 million cap to APR shows how little this government understands the sector. Very few viable farms would be worth under £1m, but lots of smallholdings and houses with a few acres let for grazing might be.
The asset value of genuine food-producing farms will be high, given the size they need to be to remain viable businesses; but that’s the value of the asset, it doesn’t reflect its profitability which is often, and increasingly so, very low.
“Clearly the government does not understand that family farms are not only small farms, and that just because a farm is an asset, it doesn’t mean those who work it are wealthy. Every penny the Chancellor saves from this will come directly from the next generation having to break up their family farm. It simply mustn’t happen.
“MPs need to understand the consequences of these actions which is why we are mobilising our members for a mass lobby in the coming weeks. British farmers will ask their MPs to look them in the eye and tell them whether they support this.
“There’s still time for the government to accept they’ve got this wrong, and my message to ministers is that they should do the right thing and reverse this awful family farm tax.”
What's the Government said on this?
Chancellor Rachel Reeves insists her 40-billion pound tax-raising budget will "fix" the economy's foundations and her reforms inheritance tax will make the system "fairer".
Full details on these changes can be found here.