The leader of Wiltshire Council is set to write to the government to outline the local authority’s “dismay” at the decision to restrict Agricultural Property Relief.
Wiltshire Council will also now undertake an analysis of how many of the county’s farms will be affected by the changes.
This comes after a motion passed through the full council which described the plans as an “attack” on “the very heart of Wiltshire”.
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Inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m will have to pay inheritance tax at 20 per cent, which remains half the usual rate.
However, the authors of the motion that has been approved by Wiltshire Council, Conservative Cllrs Rich Rogers and Bill Parks, have branded it as an “attack on Wiltshire's farming heritage”.
The majority of councillors speaking at the full council meeting on Tuesday, February 25, raised concerns over its financial impact on family farms across the county, with some describing individual cases from their own areas.
Cllr Rich Rogers said: “Many farmers simply can’t afford this burden, which would force them to sell land and assets, jeopardising the viability of their farms.”
Both council leader Cllr Richard Clewer and the leader of the Liberal Democrats on the council, Cllr Ian Thorn, supported the motion.
Although the leader of the Labour group on the council, Cllr Ricky Rogers, agreed that the council should investigate how many farms would be affected, he explained that he could not support the full motion.
He said: “My heart bleeds.
“Yes, I agree that farmers work hard, so do I.
“Run a construction business for fifty years, that’s hard work as well.
“The rest of us pay 40 per cent inheritance tax, that’s what we pay.
“Farmers are being asked to pay 20 per cent, from 2026, and ten years to pay it back.”
Cllr Brian Mathew, the Liberal Democrat MP for Melksham and Devizes, argued: “The government need to acknowledge the effect that this sudden rise in inheritance tax will have on small family farms, on people whose families have been working hard for generations to put food on Britain’s tables.”
Conservative Cllr Nabil Najjar said: “We risk seeing more than just food insecurity, we risk seeing the breakdown of farms and farming units, we see the risk of familial disputes, we see all of the things which typically come at the cost of inheritance amplified around an asset of national significance which is our farms and our national landscapes.”
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Conservative Cllr Zoë Clewer added that farmers she had spoken to in her division agreed that the £1m threshold is “far too low once dwellings, stock, and machinery are included”.
She also raised concerns over the impact of the changes on farmers’ mental health.
According to the HM Treasury and DEFRA, reforms to agricultural property relief are expected to affect the wealthiest 500 estates each year.
The Labour government has maintained that targeting these reliefs will make them “fairer” and will protect “small family farms”.
When announcing the reforms at the end of 2024, the government stated: “It is not fair for a very small number of claimants each year to claim such a significant amount of relief, when this money could better be used to fund our public services.”
The government has also stated that it is planning to invest £5bn into farming over the next two years.
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