More than 1,000 angry farmers and businesses write to South East MPs over Budget’s anti-rural measures

More than 1,000 angry farmers and businesses have written to their MPs in the South East protesting over the anti-rural measures announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the autumn Budget.

Letters signed by constituents have been sent to MPs across the region condemning the introduction of a cap on vital inheritance tax reliefs for farms, in what has been dubbed the ‘family farm tax’ or ‘tractor tax’.

As well as capping agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR), the Chancellor also announced a freeze of the farming budget – a cut in real terms.

It is believed that 70,000 farms across the UK will be impacted by the capping of inheritance tax reliefs, leading to fears across the industry that family farms will have to sell land to pay tax bills, hitting food security and environmental projects.

The letter calls on MPs to put pressure on the Treasury to change course and build a rural economy that can feed the nation, improve the environment, create jobs and generate growth.

MPs receiving letters include:

- Sean Woodcock, Labour MP for Banbury – signed by 56 farmers and businesses.

- Freddie van Mierlo, Lib Dem MP for Henley and Thame – signed by 50.

- Lee Dillon, Lib Dem MP for Newbury – signed by 44.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents farmers, landowners and rural businesses, is campaigning for the government to maintain APR and BPR.

Tim Bamford, regional director of the CLA in the South East, said: “The Chancellor’s announcement will have massive consequences for hard-pressed farmers, consumers and the environment.

“The government appears to think inheritance tax reliefs for farmers are ‘loopholes’. In reality, they are targeted reliefs designed to protect Britain’s rural economy, jobs and food security.

“This isn’t the only challenge that the farming community is facing. The real-term cut to the agriculture budget in England will mean that the government's own ambitions and targets for nature will be impossible to deliver.

“The fear and anger felt by farmers and rural businesses cannot be overstated. There is enormous growth potential in the countryside, but we need the government to be working with us, not against us.”

Annie Brown, chair of the CLA’s Sussex branch, is a third generation family farmer, running a 1,500-acre mixed farm on the South Downs just north of Brighton. She said: “I’ve committed the last 15 years of my life investing, to ensure we have a sustainable farming business to hand on to the next generation.

“The three-legged stool of sustainability – economic, environmental and social – has been achieved on our family farm, but the Budget has knocked one of those legs from underneath us. If Rachel Reeves and the Labour government understand nothing of farming businesses, they should at least understand that a two-legged stool topples over.

“We are resilient, and we do what we can to survive as a family business, but we will absolutely not be investing any more money in the business for the foreseeable future. I really don't know where the Chancellor’s ‘invest, invest, invest’ is going to come from.”

It comes just days before the CLA holds its Rural Business Conference featuring a keynote address from Defra Secretary of State Steve Reed. Details here.