Minister urges farmers to 'look calmly' at tax plans

The farming minister has urged farmers to "look calmly" at the government's plans to make them pay inheritance tax and insisted that "the vast majority will be fine".

Daniel Zeichner, the MP for Cambridge, was speaking as hundreds of farmers prepared to travel to London this week to protest at the measure announced in last month's Budget.

He told the Politics East programme that the decision to make the heirs of farmers pay inheritance tax on land worth more than £1m was necessary and he described claims that thousands of families would be affected as "extraordinary" .

The National Farmers Union (NFU), which believes that a majority of farmers will be affected, has described the announcement as a "miscalculation... which demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of how farming is shaped and managed".

Until now farm land has not been subject to inheritance tax but the chancellor wants to change that. From April 2026, any land worth more than £1m will be taxed upon the death of its owner at a rate of 20%, half the usual rate of 40%.

The news has caused consternation among farmers, but the farming minister insists that their worry is misplaced.

"I urge people to look calmly at the detail and I think they will find that the vast majority will be fine," he said.

"The figures from the Treasury are very clear: under 500 farms a year are likely to be affected and I would say to people take advice because every person's situation is different and there will be many, many people who will find they are not actually going to be caught by this."

The minister says couples and farms with property should be able to claim further reductions in their bill, and if land is passed on more than seven years before a person dies there will be nothing to pay.

"People should look at the actual facts rather than the slightly extraordinary projections which are being made," he said, referring to claims from the NFU and Country Land and Business Association that 70,000 people would be affected.

Simon Dann farms 680 acres near Dereham in Norfolk. His herd of 400 cows are milked three times a day on behalf of a major milk supplier and his 18,000 hens lay eggs for a leading supermarket.

He also runs a successful ice cream business which supplies hotels and restaurants across the county.

"Farming is getting harder," he says, blaming the fluctuating milk price, the after effects of Brexit and the difficulty in finding good staff.

"I would dearly love to bring the chancellor out to my farm and get her to work with me for a day. I'd love her to go home and think 'gosh there are some people working really hard out there to put food on our plates, we ought to take more notice of them'."

He calls the new inheritance plans which could leave his children facing a bill of more than £1m as "a kick in the teeth".

"Because we're in a minority, they (the government) think they can get away with it.

"But this...has created a potentially large tax burden which the average farm may not be able to come up with."

Zeichner made it clear that there were no plans to withdraw the tax. He blamed the last government's handling of the economy for the move but said the farming and food production budget had been increased in the Budget, which he said was a positive message for the sector.

The minister, who was in Labour's Environment, Food and Rural Affairs team while in opposition, told Politics East that he was "a champion of farmers".

"We absolutely get it and I am absolutely prepared to look them (farmers) in the eye and say 'we are with you, we will support you through what I understand is a difficult transitional period'," he said.