NFU East director says farming's fight has only just begun

This week I had the pleasure of attending a very special day in London in which farmers and the public united to fight for the future of the farming industry.

On Tuesday, the NFU (National Farmers' Union) held a mass lobbying event where 1,800 of our members, including many from East Anglia, met with their MPs at Church House, Westminster, and in parliament, to highlight why the government must reconsider its planned changes to inheritance tax. 

At the same time, thousands of farmers, including many NFU members, joined the public and marched through Westminster to make their feelings clear that the ill-thought-out changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR), announced in the recent budget, must be reconsidered. 

Farmers at the protest rally in London on November 19 (Image: Chris HIll) These changes are based on bad data and with no consultation with the farming industry.  

They threaten the future of family farms and the entire rural economy, which is so vital to this region.  

The fact that there is such a huge gap between the Treasury’s calculations that 27pc of farms in England will be impacted by the changes and Defra’s own figures, which state that more than 65pc will be hit, show just what a mess they have made of this. 

In reality, we believe the changes to APR and BPR could severely impact more than 70pc of farms in England. 

The government’s changes to inheritance tax, which are due to come into effect from April 2026, mean farm businesses will need to pay a tax rate of 20pc on agricultural assets valued over £1m. 

Just because a farm business has valuable assets, it does not mean that farmers themselves are wealthy. The average farmer’s return on capital invested is less than 1pc. 

Their farmland is merely the means for farmers and growers to produce food for the public.  

These assets only become profit when farmland is sold off, making farms less viable and jeopardising farmers’ ability to grow traceable and affordable food. 

So, if the changes go ahead, many small and medium-sized family farm businesses will have no choice but to sell up, just to pay the tax bill, and that will have repercussions for future generations.  

The Labour government declared in its manifesto that "food security is national security". 

But farmers’ ability to deliver this will be severely compromised by the changes to APR and BPR. 

They will also devastate rural economies, which are so reliant on farming, and remove some of the fantastic work being done by farmers to support the environment and protect the great British countryside. 

This is clearly not what the government intended when it announced this policy, but there is still time to reconsider and work with the NFU and its members to put things right.  

If the government was in any doubt about the strength of feeling from farmers and the public in opposition to these plans, the spectacular day of action in London on Tuesday has surely put an end to that.   

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) held a mass lobbying event with MPs in Westminster on November 19 (Image: NFU) There is so much anger and so much passion to protect our great industry, but the behaviour of everyone who took part in the NFU’s mass lobbying event and the rally was exemplary. 

Everyone made their case in a passionate, respectful and dignified way.  

To be there and witness farmers and growers fight for their industry in such a way was a pleasure to see, although we wish it wasn’t necessary. 

I am also very proud of all the NFU staff, including my NFU East regional staff team and the group secretaries for the huge amount of work that went into organising the mass lobbying event and ensuring that it ran smoothly. 

But the government should be in no doubt that this does not end here.  

Tuesday’s day of action in London was not the culmination of everyone’s efforts, merely the start. 

Farmers, by their nature, are determined and resilient and, with a huge amount of public support behind them, will continue to show to the government how they have got things so badly wrong and must reverse this damaging policy.

All our futures depend on it.