Durham farmers say they feel "betrayed" by government after inheritance tax changes
Thousands of farmers across the country will be rallying on the streets of London.
A Durham farmer tells us that they feel betrayed by the government following the changes to farmer inheritance tax.
Thousands of farmers across the country - including the North East - will be protesting on the streets of London against the tax changes.
They are warning that Labour's plans could decimate a lot of farms across the North East and UK.
Richard Laing, from East Grange farm just outside Durham city, said: "I think it's going to be devastating for farmers in the UK. The government previously promised that agricultural property relief and business property relief weren't going to be affected, so it's completely caught everyone blindsided.
"The problem is land prices completely got separated from the value of food. So now a million pounds might buy you 100 to 150 acres. That's not enough to provide a living for yourself, certainly not yourself and a family.
"It's going to decimate a lot of farms in the UK. We haven't had the time to plan for this. There's a lot of land owned by older people in the farming world. There's not the time to set up insurances or anything to pay for it. If someone sadly dies when this happens, there's going to be a double whammy because they’re going to have to sell the farm.
"I think as a group of farmers we all feel quite betrayed by this. The governments promised that agricultural property relief and business proper relief wouldn't be affected. We've heard such good things from this Labour government before they got into power, and it seems that as soon as they got into power, they’ve just forgotten about everything they said.
"We've had two of the worst years in farming. Many of us have lost money. We can't afford to pay inheritance tax on top of this. The data that they’re using to work out the size of an average farm is being skewed by small holdings and lifestyle buyers, which have brought the average size down. They need to start looking at the data using only active farmers."