NFU President Tom Bradshaw has urged the government to ‘pause and consult’ on its controversial Inheritance Tax (IHT) reforms, as we enter 2025.
In his New Year message Mr Bradshaw highlighted the challenges faced by farmers over the past 12 months, including volatile input costs, commodity prices at record levels in some farming sectors and on the floor in others, a reduction in direct payments and one of the wettest periods in decades that resulted in a disastrous harvest.
“To cap a wretched year, we saw a Labour government, which, after 14 years in opposition, promised to reset its relations with British farmers and deliver a much-needed lift to farmer confidence. Instead, it delivered an inflationary Budget and all but removed the tax reliefs for agriculture property and business property,” he said.
“In all my years in the industry I’ve never experienced the anger, despair and sense of betrayal following the Chancellor’s announcement to changes to inheritance tax which has long protected farming’s ability to pass on farm business to the next generation, thereby protecting food producing businesses and the nation’s food security.
“We saw these raw emotions play out at our mass lobby of MPs in Westminster, the farmer rally in Whitehall, and at the various tractor protests in London and around the UK, with tens of thousands of farmers expressing passionately how this tax will devastate their businesses, families, rural communities and national food security.”
He said the NFU was keeping up the pressure on government, targeting those rural labour MPs and with a ‘powerful visual reminder from the NFU’s banners campaign all over the UK that the fight is far from over’.
“Ultimately, this needs to be sorted out by the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rachel Reeves with a solution sought that will mitigate the extreme human impacts of this indefensible family farm tax policy on the current holders of those businesses, for whom, up until October 30, the best tax advice was to hold their farm until death. Rest assured, we will keep fighting to find a solution,” he added.
Import standards
He stressed that a robust system of core standards for food imports is essential to protect farmers and consumers from imported food that would be illegal to produce here and allow the economic marketplace to function properly rather than our members being constantly undermined.
“There needs to be vital legislation to boost promised public procurement of British food, and a planning system in place that enables us to invest in on-farm infrastructure that delivers for food production and mitigates environmental risk,” he added.
“It is also hugely important that the overwhelming public support British farming continues to attract remains steadfast. More than 265,000 people have signed our family farm tax petition expressing their anger and frustration and backing NFU calls for an immediate u-turn. It gives me great strength to know that Britain’s farmers and growers are respected and much valued by the public, who rank our job as one of the most important and well-respected professions, second only to nursing².
“Our ambitions are clear, and the manifesto commitment from this government, that national security is food security, gave us hope to deliver the thriving industry that farmers and growers want to be a part of.
“Clearly, the shadow hanging over the industry from the disastrous proposed reforms to IHT makes delivering these ambitions impossible. To move forwards, we need the government to urgently recognise the need to pause and consult so we can focus on delivering the far more exciting agenda above.
“As we head into the new year, we will build on the momentum of the public’s unwavering support and strive to ensure we are doing everything we can to help deliver a thriving and profitable farming industry – one that is good for shoppers, good for the environment and good for a secure supply of British food.”