The recent change to the level of the Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief thresholds will help a small number of farmers, particularly in locations where land values are lower. However, it does not alter the core flaw in the imposition of IHT on working farms – namely that it still treats active working farmers, with incomes similar to the average UK household, for IHT purposes as multimillionaires.

Whilst HM Government has acknowledged that the original policy plan was unpopular and unfair, there is still an opportunity to address its flaws properly: by differentiating between the critical work of farmers and those who are trying to get out of paying their fair share of IHT.

The recent announcement has exacerbated the opportunity for wealthy and passive investors – including overseas entities – who buy farmland to shelter wealth from IHT while still targeting active farmers, for whom an IHT bill at current calculations will mean the end of farming, for too little tax gain.

The policy not only ignores the challenge of inflated land values exacerbating the ‘asset-rich-cash-poor’ nature of active farming businesses, it also does not fundamentally address the injustice of aligning those who work the land with those who bought it as a tax avoidance tool, while their options to guard against or meet unexpected tax bills could not be more different.

You can read our full statement on the announcement here.

Fairer Family Farming is a grassroots campaign, organised by a coalition of working family farmers. The campaign was first initiated by David Passmore, Robin Hart OBE, and Phil Merson, long time family farmers with the convening power to tell the story of how current proposals are neither fair nor sustainable and wanted to promote a better alternative.

This is a grassroots campaign funded by working family farmers from across the UK who want to see the government adopt a better, fairer system for taxation.

These changes have also effectively introduced a lottery – if the older generation dies in the next seven years the farm will face an existential inheritance tax bill and likely be split up and sold, whereas those farmers who die before April 2026, or don’t die in the next seven years will be able to take steps to protect their livelihoods and make provisions to keep farms viable.

Treasury proposals have created an impossible choice for older farmers. If we retire and hand the farm down, we won’t be able to live there or draw pension income from it under government plans. If we stay on the farm with a roof over our heads, our families will be liable for inheritance tax bills they simply cannot pay without breaking up the farm.

Farming isn’t just a job – it powers local economies, provides skilled jobs and sustains communities, as well as contributing to the country’s food security – that’s more than most other professions contribute to the country.

At the same time, many farmers struggle to make ends meet – 35% of farmers in the UK make less than £25,000 a year whilst providing an invaluable service to the country. This income is at odds with the value of their land and that means that under new proposals families will need to sell their land to pay IHT bills.

Other farmers who are also struggling with income likely won’t be able to afford to take the farms on and so passive investors, who are buying up land as part of their portfolios, will snap up farms just to leave fields fallow - meaning jobs, economies and food production will be negatively affected – and that impacts all of us.

As part of the campaign, we intend to both raise awareness of the alternative options available to government in terms of ensuring fairness within the tax system, while also engaging directly with government on these proposals.

Following the changes announced by the government in December 2025, other farming and countryside groups have now wound down their campaign on this issue or do not support the CenTax (Centre for Analysis of Taxation) Minimum Share Rule proposal as the primary existing solution to this challenge.

Fairer Family Farming remains active. It is now the only dedicated campaign focussed on urging HM Government to implement the CenTax proposal.

CenTax, the Centre for Analysis of Taxation, has proposed an alternative solution to Treasury proposals called The Minimum Share Rule.

This rule would effectively allow genuine farmers - those who own and actively farm their land - to keep Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR), whilst taxing those passive landowners who hold farmland as part of a portfolio of assets purely for investment purposes. You can read more about the proposal on CenTax’s website: https://centax.org.uk/policy-brief-the-impact-of-changes-to-inheritance-tax-on-farm-estates/.

Note: Fairer Family Farming has no affiliation with CenTax, which is an independent research centre.

This is a non-partisan grassroots campaign organised by a coalition of working farmers, calling on the government to consider the alternative proposals for ensuring fairness in the tax system and ensuring that our small, family farms are treated fairly.