The UK Government has revealed there will be no further amendments to the revised proposals to increase farm inheritance tax.
The government said last month that it would raise the proposed threshold for a 20% levy on inherited agricultural assets from £1m to £2.5m.
Protesters attempted to disrupt a speech by Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds on Thursday at the Oxford Farming Conference by staging a tractor protest involving the sounding of horns.
Questioned on further changes, Reynolds told the conference: “That’s it, I’m afraid… it is the people in this room who have engaged with us constructively and relatively quietly that have had an influence on this process, not the people sounding their horns.”
The increase in the tax threshold was described by critics as a policy reversal following months of protests against the original proposals announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first budget in 2024.
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), representing rural land and business owners in England and Wales, affirmed it would continue its campaign to “reverse the policy in full”.
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CLA president Gavin Lane noted that the government’s “partial climbdown” in December provided some relief but amounted to an admission that the reforms were poorly conceived and harmful.
Lane added the policy as it remains is still “so dreadful for the rural economy”.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has expressed their opposition to the tax in principle and would “push for further changes at the next political opportunity”.
Meanwhile, president Tom Bradshaw acknowledged: “News of the change to the inheritance tax threshold just two days before Christmas, and days after my meeting with the Prime Minister, has been a huge relief for many farming families across the country.”
“The change removes the tax burden from a significant number of family farms,” he added.
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