A FARMERS’ march in Westminster on Tuesday gave voice to “a deep concern that rural communities aren’t being valued or listened to”, the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, said after the event.
More than 10,000 farmers converged on London to protest at changes to inheritance tax rules announced within the Budget (News, 1 November), that are because of come into force in April 2026. Currently, Agricultural Property Relief (APR) allows farmers to pass on their farms to their descendants without paying inheritance tax: a rule intended to advertise food security and continuity.
“The current crop of ministers has failed”
Under the brand new policy, farmers would pay no tax on the primary £1 million in value of combined agricultural and business property, but 20 per cent tax on anything above that. The National Farmers Union (NFU), which held a mass lobby of MPs at Church House, Westminster, before the march, suggests that the brand new rule would affect 75 per cent of farms and would jeopardise the longer term of family farms.
The Government has suggested a figure of about 500 estates, saying that the measure is balanced and proportionate.
Bishop Usher, who’s the lead bishop on the environment, has tabled three questions within the House of Lords in regards to the impact of changes to small farms.
“Speaking to farmers in Norfolk, I even have been struck by the anger in regards to the Budget changes to agricultural property relief from inheritance tax,” he said.
“We are already seeing the impact on farmers‘ mental health as they worry in regards to the future. This policy change will negatively impact young people going into farming, the vitality of rural communities, and the flexibility of future generations for families farming the identical land. If small farms are bought up by large firms, there’s a danger that this policy would also negatively impact nature.”
The Bishop, who can be a member of Peers for the Planet, spoke in a debate within the Lords last week on renewable energy, warning of the fee of not embracing renewable energy, especially as a worldwide neighbour.
“The predictions for people and planet are stark,” he said. “Ours is the generation that simply must move off our reliance on fossil fuels and embrace a latest, cleaner and more resilient energy future.”
