Government urged to do right thing over inheritance tax for reset with farmers

The Government is being urged to “reset” its relationship with farmers after months of protests over policies including imposing inheritance tax on farms.

National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw is set to give a highly critical speech at his organisation’s conference on Tuesday, accusing the Government of breaking promises with its “morally wrong” policy to bring in inheritance tax for farm businesses worth more than £1 million.

Mr Bradshaw will urge ministers to “do the right thing” and reverse the tax policy.

He will also criticise the “botched” agricultural transition from EU-era subsidies mostly for the amount of land farmed to payments for delivering public goods such as nature habitat and clean water, inherited from the last government.

And he will blame bad policy, geopolitics and “unprecedented weather” for leaving some sectors of the industry facing their worst cashflow crisis for generations, warning “many farmers are genuinely worried about how they’ll make it to the end of 2025”.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed is also set to address the conference in central London, where he is expected to outline a series of policies the Government hopes will boost profits for farmers – and improve relations with the sector.

They are expected to include new requirements for government catering contracts to back British produce, a multimillion-pound investment in technology, extending the seasonal worker visa programme, strengthening controls on animal disease, and protecting farmers in trade deals.

Mr Reed is expected to say: “The underlying problem is that farmers do not make enough money for the hard work and commitment they put in.

“I will consider my time as Secretary of State a failure if I do not improve profitability for farmers across the country.

“My focus is on ensuring farming becomes more profitable because that’s how we make your businesses viable for the future. And that’s how we ensure the long-term food security this country needs.”

Under the Government plans, the seasonal workers’ visa route will be extended for five years, with annual reviews for numbers, while there will be a £110 million investment in developing and supplying new technology such as supporting farmers to buy electric weeders that cut chemical use.

And there are new requirements for government catering contracts to favour high-quality, high-welfare products that officials said local farms and producers would be well-placed to serve.

But Mr Bradshaw will use his first speech to the annual conference as NFU president to reiterate opposition to the so-called “family farm tax”, which has prompted multiple protests by the sector since the move to introduce inheritance tax for farm businesses was announced last autumn.

“There were only 87 words in Labour’s manifesto about farming, but some of those words gave us hope for the future; policies on imports, binding targets for British food for the public sector, a recognition that food security is national security,” Mr Bradshaw will say.

“We recognise these are still early days for a new government, but new ministers had hardly found their way to their offices when they broke their first promise.

“And it’s one which overshadows all else, wiping out our ability to plan, to invest and, often, to hope. It hangs over our farms, our families, our futures: the family farm tax.”

He will raise concerns about its impact on tenant farmers, the elderly and the next generation, and point to the range of organisations and commentators who say the Government’s figures on the tax are incorrect.

He will criticise the Treasury for failing to take up the NFU’s offer of an alternative solution to the inheritance tax policy, and warn “we will not go away, we will not stop, we will not give in”.

“We will fight the family farm tax until ministers do the right thing,” he will say.

“This Government needs a reset with farmers, where they face up to the reality of how much the industry is struggling.”

Mr Bradshaw will call for an uplift in payments for the more ambitious environmental schemes, known as higher level stewardship, and urge the Government to prioritise food security in the face of geopolitical uncertainty and climate change.

The NFU president will launch new policy blueprints, the organisation’s vision of what is needed to “underpin confident, sustainable, profitable farm businesses, whilst producing food for 70 million British people, protecting our precious countryside, and helping ministers achieve their policy aims”.

The conference will also hear from business group the CBI’s chief executive Rain Newton-Smith who will warn that the drive for growth in new tech and clean energy will “fall flat at the first hurdle” if the country does not back sectors such as farming.

“Farming is a vital part of the everyday economy – the true job creators and community builders that prop up our whole economy.

“You can’t get growth unless you start by backing sectors like this,” she will tell the conference, acknowledging a lack of confidence in the sector as a result of the Budget and other challenges.

And she will highlight the importance of farmers in the shift to cut climate emissions to zero overall by 2050, known as net zero, saying: “Farmers are the guardians of our land. Over 70% of the UK is agricultural land.

“And from cutting emissions to planting bioenergy crops, to planting 14,000 more hectares of trees by 2050, to other nature restoration … we simply cannot reach our net-zero ambition without farmers on board.”

She will urge the Government to work on employment costs and rights so they do not put a brake on hiring, boost investment in innovation and reform planning to support farmers to invest in renewables and better buildings.

Published: 25/02/2025 by Radio NewsHub