'It’s desperate' - farming anger over tax change

The recent inheritance tax changes are a worry for farmers like Jo Hilditch

The trees are golden and the autumn air hangs misty over Next End Farm in Herefordshire.

In the yard, piles of freshly washed apples are ready to be sent off for cider.

After a rocky farming year, things appear to be back on track.

Yet for farmer Jo Hilditch, like so many of her neighbours, her mind is drifting, from apples and cider, to money and death.

In the week since the Labour government reintroduced inheritance tax for farmers, Ms Hilditch’s phone has been blowing up.

She said: “I think people are really worried. On WhatsApp, I’ve just got endless things coming in saying 'it’s desperate, what can we do?'”

What did Chancellor Rachel Reeves change then?

Farmers and their farms have until now been recognised as a special case under tax rules and so they do not have to pay inheritance tax at all.

Farmers like Ms Hilditch argue that is fair.

She is the fourth generation of her family to farm here and she intends to invest in the farm and pass it on to her kids in turn.

But in the Budget, everything changed.

Farms now have to pay inheritance tax just like everyone else, although at a reduced rate.

The chancellor announced it would apply to farms worth more than £1m from April 2026 and the government claimed it was only expected to affect about 2,000 estates each year.

Jo Hilditch grows apples for cider at her farm in Herefordshire

Online and in the papers, the arguments swirl back and forth with some claiming few farmers will be affected - and besides any tax bill can be planned for - others saying it is the death knell for the family farm.

Ms Hilditch believed many of her neighbours would have to sell something to pay any inheritance tax bills and that a smaller farm “makes the business less viable”.

She took me on a tour of her farm in Kington, pointing out the chicken sheds and the new unit to safely deal with their nitrogen-rich litter.

“That’s more or less £4m alone” she told me.

For this farm, when Ms Hilditch dies, the new inheritance tax could well be hundreds of thousands of pounds.

But every farm is different and so it is really difficult to get any sense of the true impact of these changes.

Farmers though are angry and will head to London on the 19 November to discuss and protest the changes.

Ms Hilditch said the Budget announcement came on top of other moves by the new government that she felt seemed to target farmers.

“I feel disappointed. It’s just another challenge making things difficult. Not just for me but for the smaller farmers too,” she added.

Following the Budget announcement, the government said it would be maintaining the £2.4bn farming budget for England in 2025-26.

Food Security Minister Daniel Zeichner added: “Our commitment to farmers and the vital role they play to feed our nation remains steadfast."