Farmers have been forced to put investment projects ‘on hold', with many considering the implications of the Inheritance Tax (IHT) changes proposed by the Chancellor. David White is a third-generation farmer from Cambridgeshire, farming 145 hectares, with a mixture of owned and rented land.
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Mr White had intended to build a ‘small grain store extension' to help with the ‘serration of the more niche grains' grown on his farm and to give him access to a market premium, as well as a shed to store machinery out of the weather. He said both projects have been pulled.
Budget
He said: "From doing a project each year, the chequebook is now closed to any capital investment either building or machinery, with anything other than cost of inputs to grow a crop being on stop. We need to build a fighting fund to help our family successors deal with this tax raid."
'Full impact assessment'
When the Defra Secretary, Steve Reed, was probed in a rural affairs debate in Parliament earlier this week, if he had considered how capital investment would be negatively impacted by IHT changes, he said a ‘full impact assessment' would be available once the Finance Bill was published and before legislation came into force in 2026.Mr Reed said ‘the vast majority of farmers would not be affected at all by the changes', and urged farmers ‘not to believe every alarming claim or headline'.
Josh MacAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, in Cumbria, called on Ministers to consider some form of transitional support for those who will pass down their farms in the coming seven years – who may be caught out by changes announced in the Budget.
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Tenant farmers
Shadow Defra Secretary Victoria Atkins said Labour's choice to change IHT for farmers would achieve ‘the exact opposite'. She said the current policy meant ‘tenant farmers and farmers in the middle' would struggle, ‘not the wealthiest'.
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Ms Atkins said she was contacted by a Welsh landowner who said he must tell ‘six multigenerational farming families' that he will have to sell the farms. She added that some tenants were worried their farms would be sold off, so some landowners can enter into ‘greenwashing agreements with corporates'.
Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner rejected the idea the Government was wrong and said it was ‘striking' how many farmers have said ‘you are right' to make this change.
