'Inheritance tax will mean the end of our farm'

A balding man with a white beard is wearing a grey fleece with a pair of glasses hung from the zip. He is stood on a farm with a number of pigs in the background and farm buildings

Stephen Thompson has criticised the government's new inheritance tax for farmers

Lucy Ashton
BBC News, Yorkshire

A farmer has said he "can't afford to die" because of the government's new rules on inheritance tax.

Stephen Thompson of Moss Valley Fine Meats in Sheffield said farms were asset-rich but cash-poor and that his family would not be able to pay the "abhorrent tax" if he passed away.

Speaking to Doncaster Central MP Sally Jameson during a BBC Radio Sheffield phone-in, he said: "My son would have to sell up. He would lose his house and his son's inheritance would go as well. It's such a stupid idea, it was not thought through."

Ms Jameson responded that the government was investing more than £5bn in the farming sector.

Four piglets are in a pen on a farm, one is looking at the camera as it drinks from equipment

Stephen Thompson owns Povey Farm and supplies pork meat

The new tax comes into force from April 2026 and will apply to agricultural assets worth more than £1m or up to £3m in certain circumstances.

Mr Thompson, who supplies pork meat, said: "It mean the end of our farm. The level has been set so low it is going to affect 95% of all farmers.

"There is a blitz on farming that is just going in totally the wrong direction. We have carbon tax, 4x4 [vehicle] tax, inheritance tax, you name it.

"Farming has been hammered as all the grants have been removed, we have the smallest funding for agriculture in the last 15 years at the moment."

The government said the reforms would stop people buying agricultural land to avoid tax.

A woman has light brown shoulder length hair which is slightly curly. She is wearing a white shirt and a peach blazer with a red rose pinned to the lapel. She is smiling at the camera

Doncaster MP Sally Jameson took part in a BBC Radio Sheffield phone-in

Jameson said: "It is a difficult decision, but one we have to take in order to keep the country financially afloat.

"We have actually put more into farms in terms of agricultural investment than there has been for a long time.

"The government has put more than £5bn into farming, there was an underspend last year under the last government.

"We are going to make sure this year there is not an underspend, so that farmers are getting the support to grow the food that we need."

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