Political Opinion: Bedfordshire farming leader says family farm tax will force closure of farms in county and urges government to do the right thing
A Bedfordshire farming leader is urging the government to look at the NFU’s alternative solution to the family farm tax as the draft legislation for the Finance Bill is laid out.
NFU Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire Chair Freya Morgan, who farms near Bedford, said the government’s planned changes to inheritance tax threaten the future of many small and medium-sized family farms in the county and is urging the government to “do the right thing” before it is too late.
Mrs Morgan’s warning comes as the government has outlined plans to hold a technical consultation on the draft legislation, including on inheritance tax, to ensure it ‘works as intended’.
This is a common process in the development of a Finance Bill, but given the appalling consequences of this legislation, the NFU will be holding the government to account on every element of this policy.
The NFU has repeatedly provided evidence that the current policy does not achieve the government’s intentions of closing a loophole, protecting family farms, or generating as much revenue as it should. Nor do we agree that it is ‘not expected to have a material impact on food security’.
On the other hand, the NFU’s ‘clawback’ solution would allow the Treasury to raise the revenue it seeks without tearing apart farming families or jeopardising domestic food production.
Mrs Morgan said: “The government must do the right thing and properly consider the NFU’s alternative ‘clawback’ proposal to its planned inheritance changes.
“The government’s current proposals threaten the future of many small and medium-sized family farm businesses, including many in Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire who have fed the nation for generations, and will severely damage the entire rural economy.
“They do nothing to stop people who buy land for tax avoidance and unfairly and cruelly penalise elderly farmers, who have dedicated their entire lives to feeding the nation.
“The current proposals also threaten national food security and could remove a great deal of work that farmers do to support the environment.
“The clawback proposal has been put together with tax experts and would raise significant income for the government, tackle tax avoidance, protect national food security and the rural economy and avoid all this unnecessary damage, pain and heartache.
“The government must listen to the experts and properly engage with the farming community.
“There is still time to avoid all of the damage that the current family farm tax would cause.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously said: “If somebody makes powerful representations, then my instinct is to consider what’s being said. Getting it right is more important than ploughing on with a package which doesn’t necessarily achieve the desired outcome.”
The NFU agrees, and we are far from alone.
Since the Budget in November 2024, swathes of MPs from all parties, including members of the government’s own back benches, alongside county councils, farming and business organisations, the food supply chain and over a quarter of a million members of the British public have joined the call to stop the family farm tax. Even the Office for Budget Responsibility and the government’s own Efra Committee have highlighted the impact these reforms will have on vulnerable elderly farmers.
Throughout the summer, NFU members have also made their voices heard. At county shows across the country, thousands of letters and postcards were collected from farmers and the public to be sent directly to MPs – each sharing personal stories of how this tax will devastate their family farms.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “The Prime Minister must now take his own advice and listen to the overwhelming evidence that the current policy will not work as intended.
“To ignore the consequences this tax will bring would be a betrayal of the very people who feed our nation. “We cannot stand by and watch the backbone of the countryside be broken when there is a credible alternative being offered.
“This is a moment that demands listening, compassion and action.
“The government needs to sit down with farming representatives to find a solution that protects the future of our domestic food production – before it is too late.”