Farmers' children protest over inheritance tax changes

The children of farmers in the South East delivered letters to Downing Street

The children of farmers in the South East hand delivered letters to Downing Street to protest changes to inheritance tax.

A £1m cap to agricultural property relief will be introduced from April 2026 and was first introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Autumn budget.

Campaigners from Save British Farming and 650 tractors travelled to Whitehall on Thursday to protest the changes.

Ollie, from Edenbridge, Kent, wants to be a farmer like his father and grandfather when he grows up and has said the changes are unfair.

He said: "We've worked hard to feed people and then some people are going to have to start selling up."

Ollie's father Paul is a farmer at Chiddingstone Dairy, which his own father Graham owns.

He called the changes an "absolute minefield" which will hit asset-rich, cash-poor family farms the hardest.

He said: "We'd have to sell the land pretty much to pay that tax bill.

"Out of all the business assets that we have, the land is the least profitable thing unfortunately."

Working farms are currently exempt from paying inheritance tax, however from April 2026 there were be a £1m cap to passing down agricultural assets.

Tax due above the cap and a further £325,000 allowance will be set at 20%, which is half of the usual inheritance rate.

Tara Bell, inheritance tax specialist at accountancy firm Westcotts said professionals are awaiting a government consultation early in 2025 to find out how the tax will be rolled out.

Ms Bell said she had expected any change to agricultural asset relief to target investors, rather than people who farm their own land.

She said: "They don't have to be a farmer themselves, they might just have a load of cash sat somewhere which is potentially subject to inheritance tax.

"They put it into a farm and as long as somebody farms it for seven years, they've avoided inheritance tax on that value."

Graham (l) intends to pass down his farm in Edenbridge to his son Paul (c)

Ollie, who runs a farm in Pulborough, West Sussex, attended the protest with his daughter Delilah.

He believes the government needs to target the "super-wealthy" who buy up farm land rather than the farmers who work the land.

He said: "I feel Rachel Reeves has pointed her arrow at the wrong sector.

"There's a big difference between productive working farm land and people who are snapping up land to pay the tax bill."

The government said it has committed £5bn to farming over two years, which it said was "the largest ever for sustainable food production and nature's recovery".

It also said it was developing a "25-year farming roadmap, to ensure greater profitability for rural businesses in the years to come".

The spokesperson said: "Our reform to Agricultural and Business Property Relief will impact around 500 estates a year.

"For these estates, inheritance tax will be at half the rate paid by others, with 10 years to pay the liability back interest free.

"This is a fair and balanced approach which will help fix the public services we all rely on."