Farmers fear being ‘broken’ by Labour’s inheritance tax as 89% scrap investment

Nearly 50 per cent said they would have to sell at least a quarter of their land to cover any potential bill, with one in four saying they’d have to sell over half.

One respondent told the association: “I am doing everything I can to devalue my business to reduce the tax burden for my children.”

It means many farmers have stopped buying new machinery or growing crops, and are watching buildings and land deteriorate.

It’s been a tough harvest for many across the UK, including farmer Hannah Darby, who told GB News the Government must look again at its policy.

She said: “I farm with my uncle. He has never married, he doesn’t have children and everything works quite well for us working together.

“When he passes away, he’s likely to have somewhere in the region of about £450,000 worth of Inheritance Tax liability.

“If we had to sell farmland to pay the Inheritance Tax bill, we would no longer be viable as a farming business.

“Any money that we do have that’s extra, which we don’t have at the moment, you think you might have to put that away for a rainy day?”

With Chancellor John Healey set to deliver the Budget in less than two weeks’ time, pressure is mounting from rural communities for more certainty.

The CLA survey found seven in ten countryside family businesses now say they are worried they will not survive the next ten years.

Hannah added: “I would just love them to do some kind of parity between single people that have devoted their whole life to farming businesses, to growing food for this country, and married people.

“We need governments on our side. Farmers are incredibly resilient, resourceful people, but we’re getting near to being very broken because of government policies and people just not understanding the help that we need.”

On a visit to a farm this summer, the Prime Minister said the Government had a “long way to go to build back trust” with farmers, adding the UK needed to “guarantee” its food production.

The Government has previously said the updated £2.5million relief allowance means most family businesses will not be affected.

The CLA is calling for Andy Burnham and John Healey to scrap the tax in the Budget.

Deputy president of the association, Joe Evans, told GB News: “We now know that 85 per cent of land-based businesses would be impacted by the £2.5million threshold.

“We now are more sure than ever that it [Inheritance Tax changes] will achieve exactly the opposite to what the Government wants, which is growth and confidence in the rural sector.

“I don’t say that lightly, if I thought that an increase in the threshold would achieve that, then that’s what I would suggest, but an increase in the threshold will just make it a bit less bad.

“So, let’s use this as an opportunity for a full reversal to put the confidence back in the rural economy.”