The UK’s food security and the future of farming lies in Rachel Reeves’ hands, a leading MP has said as a committee called on the government to delay farm inheritance tax changes.
The environment, food and rural affairs (EFRA) committee has released a report calling on the government to delay the reforms for a year until April 2027.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the October budget farmers would no longer be allowed to claim inheritance tax relief for farms worth more than £1m from April 2026.
The move prompted multiple protests in Westminster by farmers who said it will threaten the future of thousands of multi-generational family farms.
The EFRA committee, made up of seven Labour MPs and four Lib Dem and Tory MPs, said a pause in the implementation would “allow for better formulation of tax policy and provide the government with an opportunity to convey a positive long-term vision for farming”.
A delay would also protect vulnerable farmers who would have “more time to seek appropriate professional advice”, the MPs said.
There have been multiple protests
The MPs raised concerns the change was announced “without adequate consultation, impact assessment or affordability assessment”, leaving the impact on farms and food security “disputed and unclear”.
They said it risks producing “unintended consequences” and threaten to “affect the most vulnerable”.
The MPs have called on the government to consider alternative reforms.
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Chair of the EFRA Committee Alistair Carmichael said the government should pause and reconsider the farmers’ inheritance tax changes
Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem chair of the committee, told Sky News: “There is a need for inheritance tax to be reformed.
“The use of land purchase by the super rich as a means of sheltering their wealth is something which is not in the public interest or farmers.
“But this is not the way to go about reform.
“The risk is you see farmers selling out, they will sell out to people who are not going to use land for food production then we risk losing food security – we’ve seen how foolish relying on exports is after Putin’s invasion.”
Celebrities such as Jeremy Clarkson have drawn attention to the outrage
He added “as an outsider looking in”, the way in which the Treasury handled the inheritance tax announcement, after Labour said in opposition they would not change it, “has created a real problem of political authority” for Environment Secretary Steve Reed.
“It’s a problem the Treasury themselves can solve,” he said.
“Their own backbenchers increasingly think they should solve this and our report today gives them an opportunity to do that if they choose to take it.
“It really is up to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is over to her now.”
The committee report says before the autumn budget 70% of farmers felt optimistic about their futures, but that fell to 12% after the budget.
The survey, by the Farmers Guardian in March, also found 84% of farmers felt their mental health has been affected by the announcement.
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Key points from the budget
Farmers said the government announcing the closure of applications to this year’s sustainable farming incentive with just hours to go, was also a cause.
The committee said there are other ways to achieve reform, and called on the government to publish its evaluation and rationale for not following alternative policy measures.
They also said the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has a pattern of “poor communication and last-minute decision-making following rumours and departmental leaks”.
