'Mental health among farmers is at all-time low'

Dan Willis says the changes announced in the autumn budget will cost him about £35,000 this year

A farmer says government changes to subsidies and tax have left mental health in the industry at an all-time low.

Dan Willis, who owns Rookery Farms near Newbury, Berkshire, says the changes announced in the autumn budget will cost him about £35,000 this year.

He told the BBC he feared some in the farming community were struggling to cope with the added pressure.

The government said it had committed £5bn to the farming budget over two years and was developing a 25-year roadmap to make the sector more profitable.

Mr Willis, who joined fellow farmers at a protest in London at the end of last year, said: "The whole mood within my family has affected our mental health because this is a pressure unlike I've never felt.

"We do need to see a reversal or certainly a threshold change... Because once you start taxing the asset, the asset is uneconomical to go forward with and we'll see family farms change.

"We feel we're under attack. If we could liken it to a war, we really feel like we're in the first tranche of warfare."

In the October budget, it was announced the full relief from inheritance tax would be restricted from April 2026 to the first £1m of combined agricultural and business property.

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"A few of us have met up, we've sat in a pub and we've talked and the best thing is to know that you're not on your own," Mr Willis said.

"Although each one of us has an individual, different situation, it does help that we've all managed to reach out and talk."

He said the announcements in the budget had brought the mood within the industry to an "all-time low".

A government spokesperson said the changes would impact "around 500 estates a year" and mean inheritance tax would 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 fixes the public services we all rely on," they added.

"Our commitment to farmers remains steadfast – we have committed £5bn to the farming budget over two years... and we are developing a 25-year farming roadmap, focusing on how to make the sector more profitable in the decades to come."