Spring Statement 2025: What’s next for Britain’s farmers?

Fury and frustration continue to rage across the UK as Britain’s farming community rallies together in protest against the Government’s planned Inheritance Tax (IHT) changes for agricultural businesses.

Those within the industry pray (but are doubtful) that Chancellor Rachel Reeves will renege on the decision made in the Autumn Budget, during her Spring Statement announcement next week (26th March).

The Autumn Budget has been heavily criticised by farmers, farming organisations and charities for the impact it could have on family farms – many of them generations’ old. While the Government says the changes will only affect wealthier landowners, with an aim to discourage people from buying agricultural land to avoid tax.

What are the inheritance tax changes for farmers?

Reforms on Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) from Inheritance Tax are due to be actioned from April 2026. Tax relief will be capped at £1 million (£3 million in some cases) and any amount above this will be subject to 20% tax rather than 40%, payable in interest-free instalments over 10 years.

What’s happened since the announcement of agricultural IHT changes?

Naturally there is a lot of ill feeling within farming for the new Labour Government, and protests have been held both in London and nationwide, as farmers seek to have their voices heard.

Speaking at one of the protests, NFU president, Tom Bradshaw, said it’s not right for the Prime Minister to call APR and BPR ‘tax breaks for farmers’. “He knows they are policies designed to ensure family farms can stay in business and enable them to deliver for the nation. It’s also not reasonable to suggest that raising between nothing and £500 million – the varying estimates of what the new tax will bring in – will determine the future of the NHS or UK schools.”

Later, the NFU, having been called to a meeting with exchequer secretary, James Murray, and food security minister, Daniel Zeichner, alongside representatives from the TFA (Tenant Farmers Association), CLA (Country Land and Business Association), and others, said it was disheartened to learn the Government would meet no compromise.

Tom said “disappointed doesn’t cover” how he felt, adding that food security matters more than ever in Britain, and coming to the conclusion that this Government doesn’t care about British food production, and has a fundamental lack of understanding of the industry having rejected alternatives offered to it.

“Put simply, farmers don’t get money when they inherit, they get the farm, the business asset, and often the debt. Any money they do get, they get when they sell,” said Tom. “So, our suggestion is based on that premise. Our suggestion, which is almost revenue neutral meaning the Chancellor gets her planned income, is that if an inherited farm is sold, then Inheritance Tax gets paid. Crucially, this would allow family farms that want to continue to produce the nation’s food, to do so, while giving the Treasury what it wants.”

He continued, “This is a mess, but there is still time for the Treasury to review. I urge them to look at the proposal put to them by all the major farming organisations. It will raise the money needed. It is a way forward which is fair, removes huge risk to British agriculture (including significant emotional and financial pressures), and delivers for UK food security, something the Government continues to insist is a priority.”

We enter the Spring Statement at a time when a recent NFU survey shows farmer morale is at an all-time low, especially with the added blow from Government that the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) has been paused to new applications.

‘I want our farm to stay in the family – as it has done for generations’

Up until the Autumn Budget, fourth generation arable farmer, Jo Milnes, of West End Farm in Yorkshire, had visions of growing old on the land, watching her children and grandchildren take her place in the family business.

The changes to IHT for farmers, however, cast doubt that this will happen, with the potential she may have to sell on all or part of the farm (originally taken on by her grandfather in 1918) on her parents’ deaths.

“Me and my daughter went to the march in November and feel very very strongly about this,” said Jo. “It’s devastating. My daughter is 30, married to a lovely man, and they’ve got a two-year-old who is tractor mad. It would be lovely to see the farm stay in the family. My parents are in their 80s and they’ve probably got another seven years (the cut off point for gifting) but if not, we’ve got over £500,000 to pay when they die. People don’t realise, yes farms have a lot of assets, but you can’t sell those assets to make money. Farming is also one of the very few industries where you have to buy at retail and sell at wholesale.”

Jo added that she doesn’t have £500,000 in the bank, and argued that even paying IHT over 10 years won’t be tenable for most family farms. “When you only make £50,000 to £60,000 a year, if you had to pay the Government, there’s nothing left to carry on growing the farm, buying new machinery! They just don’t seem to understand that.”

The price Britain will pay, said Jo is in food security. As more farmers are forced to sell up, so the reliance on imports increases, which is at odds with the Government’s Net Zero and climate improving rhetoric.

“Recently Spain had a lot of bad weather, so they instantly stopped selling salad products to the UK. Then you’re reliant on other countries wanting to send food to the UK.”

Innovation, stability and support are what’s needed, Jo thinks, saying if the Government really believes in sustainability it should be supporting what’s already happening on the ground here.

“If you take our farm, we grow barley, wheat, oilseed rape and this year vine peas. Our barley goes 20 minutes away, our wheat 15 minutes away – the only thing that has to go a bit further is our oilseed rape, but everything we grow, we try to sell as locally as possible.

“The other thing is, if people aren’t farming the countryside (managing hedgerows and grass verges) it would look very different.”

Jo thinks farming has been “stifled” in recent years. “The Government seems to be shutting farming down,” she said. “Recently they closed the SFI scheme to new applications. And councils might have the right to compulsorily purchase land to build houses, I heard for about £7,000 an acre. Ours is worth £12.500. They just seem to be knocking us every which way they can!”

If livestock farming is heavily impacted by IHT reforms, this would also take away choice for shoppers when it comes to animal welfare, Jo continued. “The UK has the highest welfare for animals in the world,” she explained. “If we have to import cheaper meats, animals will be suffering, and they might cut corners in production, which we don’t do.”

What are her hopes and dreams? “I just hope they reverse this. I don’t think they will, but I hope they do. Look at what farmers do for the UK. I already know one farmer who has committed suicide because of this. I can’t bear to think about what will happen in the future.”

Jo said without changes to the current proposal, the Government can expect to see more protest and hear more noise from farmers in the months to come.