The Conservative Group on York Council has welcomed news that the threshold for farmers having to pay Inheritance Tax will rise from £1 million to £2.5 million, which will enable married farmers to pass on a farm worth £5,000,000 with no tax. With low or no profit across many farms there was no way of paying the tax and farms which have been in families for generations would have been broke up and sold to billionaire investors and companies (mainly overseas) who would not pay the tax. The number of impacted farmers will now fall significantly, but not before huge worry (including some farmers feeling driven to suicide) and farmers making decisions to encash pensions and similar huge steps which looked the least bad option at the time.
The partial Labour u-turn comes as they this week announce another series of proposed changes in their war on the countryside, including the banning of drag hunts where an artificial scent is tracked. It remains the Labour belief that everyone in the country is rich and should be punished and traditional rural ways of life are unrelatable to the Islington elite jumping chaotically around at the top of the government.
When the Labour Family Farm Fax was first announced in 2024, Cllr Chris Steward travelled to London to support the farmers’ protest at Westminster. York’s Conservative councillors then put a motion to City of York Council urging members to oppose the tax, sadly all Labour councillors voted it down. Local Labour MPs Rachael Maskell and Luke Charters supported the farming tax at every stage, despite the opposition amongst their constituents – in York Outer in particular.
Group Leader Cllr Chris Steward said
We welcome the partial u-turn by Labour which is due to campaigning by farmers and also the Conservative Party. It remains too little and too late as we believe all farms should be exempt from Inheritance Tax and there has been far too much worry amongst farmers who are now not affected, but will in some cases have significantly changed their financial plans which now looks the wrong thing.
Not only do we believe all Agricultural Property Relief (APR) should be reinstated but the government should also look at its changes to Business Property Relief (BPR) which will see huge taxes on family business and put them and the jobs they provide at threat.
