The following statement was issued on 7 November 2024
Local MP campaigns to ‘stop the farm tax’
Changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) announced in last week’s Budget mean that many farms with assets over a threshold will now pay inheritance tax at 20 percent from April 2026.
Damian Hinds, MP for East Hampshire, said: “APR is an important relief that enables family farms to be passed down through generations. We know that land values are high but a family farm is unlike other assets. The profits farmers make are slim, so this may be the last straw for many farmers. At a time when we need to be buying and growing more British food, I do question the logic of a tax change that could prompt sales of family farms. These reliefs are not a ‘loophole’: they were deliberately designed to stop family farms being sold and broken up.”
In Parliament this week, Damian raised the additional effects of curtailing APR on rural business development. It would, he said, have a depressive effect on investment.
Over 75,000 acres of East Hampshire land (equal to 80 percent of the total land mass of the district) is farmed, employing more than 1,000 people, making it a vital sector for the local economy.
Damian continued: “I know the agricultural sector feel deeply let down over this. In the days before the budget I discussed the importance of Agricultural Property Relief with a group of local farmers. It was understood by the National Farmers Union, from assurances given to them, that rumoured changes to APR and Business Property Relief wouldn’t happen. It was a shock therefore to discover it was after all in the Budget statement.
“This is not the moment to clobber a sector that is already struggling with the effects of extreme weather and high production costs. It will make the challenge of stabilising food security in the UK even harder.
“This is why I am campaigning to stop the family farm tax before it causes irreversible damage to the farming community.”
Damian is calling on East Hampshire residents to join him in opposing the government’s decision to cut inheritance tax relief for family farms. The petition can be found at: stopthefarmtax.com.
