Farming and IHT

In the last few weeks I’ve had many conversations with farmers in my constituency about the very difficult year they had last year and their concerns for the future. 

As many of us will remember, 2024 was extraordinarily wet, even though East Anglia thankfully escaped the worst of it. Nationwide, 2024 was the second worst harvest on record. On top of that, farmers have faced rising costs which, combined with the injustice of supermarkets squeezing margins evermore, makes it very difficult to make a living. 

Then came the October Budget and the proposal to close a tax loophole which exempted farmland and businesses from inheritance tax. The Chancellor is proposing a threshold of £1 million on business and agricultural assets - anything more than that would be subject to inheritance tax of 20 percent. Cue mass protests by farmers at Westminster and a growing tide of concern and anger in farming communities. 

This issue has been quickly politicised with opposition parties lining up to attack the Government. There’s no surprise there. Looking for a weakness in the Government’s position is what opposition parties do. It’s part of how our democracy works. But it’s not enough for opposition parties to simply defend the current situation and offer no alternative – as the Conservatives are doing. 

Because what’s become clear to me in my conversations with local farmers is that, while the Government’s proposed changes are deeply flawed, the status quo is not working either. More and more farmland is being bought by wealthy investors to avoid inheritance tax, driving up prices and denying ordinary farmers the chance to expand their farms. And these investors often have no interest in farming. 

I spoke to one farmer who told me about a 350-acre farm in Suffolk which had been bought by a wealthy London banker who didn’t even visit the property. In fact, he bought it before it even went on the market. In another case, a farmer who was hoping to expand his farm and had set aside the money to buy some neighbouring land saw that land sold for 60 percent above the asking price – again bought by someone taking advantage of tax rules. It’s no wonder that land prices are rising by an average of 14 percent every year. 

One nationwide land agency found that non-farmers bought more than half of the farms and estates sold on the open market in England in 2023. The amount of land bought by ordinary farmers was the lowest on record.  

This is not good for farmers or for our food security. It’s clear to me that this tax loophole has to be addressed in order to save family farms and the livelihoods of ordinary working farmers.  

But the way the Government has framed this policy is going to end up protecting the investors while harming the farmers. The reduced inheritance tax rate will still entice wealthy investors who want to minimise their inheritance tax liabilities, even if they can’t avoid them altogether. But farmers will face huge tax bills when they try to pass on a family farm to the next generation. 

The rise in land values isn’t only pricing out many ordinary farmers. It is also driving up the paper value of their farms, pushing many of them way above the £1 million threshold proposed by the Chancellor. An average-sized farm of 300 acres could easily be worth £3 million and that’s just for the land. Then there are the buildings, the farm equipment and the livestock on the farm. 

Yet many farmers are earning barely more than the minimum wage, despite working very long hours. 

There is a clear solution to this. Close the tax loophole to deter investors and, hopefully, bring down land prices but protect genuine farmers by raising the threshold much higher than the proposed £1 million. That’s what the farmers and local National Farmers Union reps I’ve spoken to want to see. 

Farming is an absolutely critical industry – vital for our food security, the protection of wildlife and our response to climate change. But if we want to protect it, there must be a fair deal for farmers to include: ensuring the funding pots for environmental land management schemes are adequate and easy to access; tackling the power of the supermarkets and stopping them squeezing the prices that farmers receive; and addressing the existing tax loophole. This loophole is clearly creating major problems for ordinary working farmers and costing the Treasury millions in lost tax revenue. That money is urgently needed for public services like the NHS, education and public transport – and nature friendly farming schemes.  

The Conservatives and others who want to preserve the status quo aren’t acting in the interests of genuine farmers – they are protecting the interests of very wealthy investors. I want to see a huge investment in our public services, funded by taxing those with the broadest shoulders like these wealthy investors. I also want to family farms to thrive. 

The Chancellor can do both by closing this tax loophole and raising the inheritance tax threshold to protect ordinary farms. It would be positive way to start the new year.  

I wish you all a hopeful and peaceful 2025.