Farmers and growers are set to take part in mass lobby of their MPs to highlight the impact of changes to the Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR).
The NFU has warned that growers are at breaking point, following decades of tightening margins, inflation, extreme weather and increased production costs. It adds that the changes could increase food costs to consumers, adding pressure to the cost of living crisis.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “Farmers and growers have been left reeling from the changes announced in the budget which demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of how the British farming sector is shaped and managed. The current plans to change APR and BPR need to be overturned and fast.
“Farmers are rightly angry and concerned about their future and the future of their family farms, having been reassured by minsters in the lead up to the Budget that APR and BPR changes were not on the table.
“The Treasury’s figures which claim this will only affect one in four British farms are misleading. The £1 million cap to APR shows how little this government understands the sector. Very few viable farms would be worth under £1m, but lots of smallholdings and houses with a few acres let for grazing might be. The asset value of genuine food-producing farms will be high, given the size they need to be to remain viable businesses; but that’s the value of the asset, it doesn’t reflect its profitability which is often, and increasingly so, very low.
“Clearly the government does not understand that family farms are not only small farms, and that just because a farm is an asset, it doesn’t mean those who work it are wealthy. Every penny the Chancellor saves from this will come directly from the next generation having to break up their family farm. It simply mustn’t happen.
“MPs need to understand the consequences of these actions which is why we are mobilising our members for a mass lobby in the coming weeks. British farmers will ask their MPs to look them in the eye and tell them whether they support this.
“There’s still time for the government to accept they’ve got this wrong, and my message to ministers is that they should do the right thing and reverse this awful family farm tax.”