After months of tireless campaigning by farmers in our area and across the whole country, I am genuinely delighted that the Government has finally listened and reversed course on its proposed family farm tax. Raising the threshold from £1 million to £2.5 million is a significant step forward and a clear recognition that the original policy would have caused real harm. Common sense has prevailed, and that is down to the persistence, professionalism, and unity of our farming community.
Throughout this process, I have raised farmers concerns directly with Ministers, pressed the Treasury in Parliament to make clear the real world impact this proposal would have had on our area.
This change truly matters. Under the plans announced at the Autumn Budget 2024, farms with combined business and agricultural assets above the threshold would have faced inheritance tax at an effective rate of 20% from April 2026. For many farmers, this was not an abstract policy debate but an immediate and deeply personal concern. I was contacted by families who were genuinely distressed, fearful that businesses built up over generations would simply not survive the imposition of this tax.
Without this change, many families would have had no choice but to sell land simply to meet a tax bill. That would have reduced the size and viability of farms, weakened the rural economy, and damaged food security, all for a very limited return to the Treasury. It was a policy that risked breaking up productive farms while raising relatively little revenue.
While this decision is welcome, the job is not finished. Other family businesses are still affected by Labour’s tax raid, and we will keep pushing until the tax is lifted from them too. Family run businesses, whether on farms or on high streets, face many of the same pressures and deserve a tax system that supports those who work hard and build successful businesses that serve our communities and country.
Farmers and family businesses alike deserve long term certainty and a fair approach that reflects economic reality. I will continue to stand up for those who work our land, sustain our countryside, and underpin our local economy, until they get the fair deal they deserve.
