A group of influential MPs has urged the government to delay controversial planned changes to inheritance tax for farmers to “allow for better formulation of tax policy” and to protect vulnerable farmers by giving them more time to seek advice.
The environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee has called on the government to hold off announcing its overhaul of agricultural property relief and business property relief until October 2026, before bringing them into effect from April 2027.
The report said such a move “would allow for better formulation of tax policy and provide the government with an opportunity to convey a positive long-term vision for farming”. They added that the planned changes “threaten to affect the most vulnerable” and a pause would give them “more time to seek appropriate professional advice” while allowing the government time to consider other options.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, caused uproar among much of the farming sector in October when she announced plans in her budget to bring farms and other agricultural property into inheritance tax rules, in order to raise money for public services and close a tax loophole exploited by some wealthy landowners.
Ending a decades-long exemption for farms, Reeves’s plans to make inheritors pay 20% of the value of agricultural and business property above £1m have sparked large-scale protests in recent months and led to ministers’ speeches being drowned out by tractor horns.
MPs on the cross-party Efra committee have raised concerns that the changes announced in the budget were made without adequate consultation, impact assessment or assessment of affordability, with a risk of producing unintended consequences.
While broadly supportive of the government’s inheritance tax changes, the committee is calling on ministers to consult on their proposals to avoid hurting small family farms.
Alistair Carmichael, the chair of the Efra committee and a Liberal Democrat MP, criticised the way the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had communicated with farmers, particularly the sudden closure of a key post-Brexit subsidy scheme, the sustainable farming incentive.
“The way in which the government has behaved over recent months has clearly negatively affected the confidence and wellbeing of farmers,” Carmichael said.
“We have seen that Defra’s communications with farmers have been poor, with confusing and sometimes contradictory messaging. There has been a lack of adequate consultation. Policies affecting farmers have been announced without due consideration or explanation of their impact or their rationale.”
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He urged the government to adopt the committee’s recommendations, saying ministers had an opportunity to rebuild trust and confidence in the farming sector.
“Farmers ought to be the essential element in the government’s plans both to achieve food security and to restore and protect the environment,” he said.
