Tax raid on farmers is wrong

The UK is currently dependent on imports for the majority of its fruit and vegetables. MPs argued that the country should become more self-sufficient in the wake of the Covid outbreak. The UK’s fresh vegetable self-sufficiency is at its lowest level since records began in 1988, at 53 per cent, according to 2023 figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Speaking on the Political Currency podcast, Mr Balls said: “This issue of inheritance tax on family farms where the limit is a million pounds before you pay inheritance tax, I think that’s going to be one of the things that could become an issue. It’s becoming more and more of an issue in the coming weeks and months.”

The NFU has warned that half of working farms will be affected by the tax raid, although the Treasury claims less than a quarter will be affected.

NFU chief executive Tom Bradshaw said: “The Treasury’s figures claiming this will only affect one in four British farms are misleading.

“It is clear that the government does not understand that family farms are not just small farms and that just because a farm is an asset does not mean that those who run it are rich. I said that every penny the Chancellor saves from this will come directly from the next generation who has to tear up the family farm. “This should definitely not happen.”

The government’s impact assessment found “almost three-quarters” of farms would be unaffected by the changes, but Mr Bradshaw said the analysis “vastly overestimated” that number.

The NFU said the Government had made a “significant miscalculation” and that many of the farms the Treasury said would be protected were actually small businesses where people could not make a living.

At least 70,000 farms in England are worth more than £1 million, according to official data, meaning they will all be affected by the Chancellor’s inheritance tax raid.

Lucian Cook, of Savills estate agents, said the threshold, based on current land values, meant every farmer with at least 100 acres of land would be affected by the tax change. “No one is going to make a living from 100 acres of land.”