Tax change could wipe-out seventh generation family farm near March

A seventh-generation Fenland farming family fears changes to the inheritance tax on farms could put them out of business.

Daniel Scott who farms 380 acres of land near March with his 85-year-old dad and his son has spoken of the deep concern his family has about the future.

Mr Scott spoke out after attending the protest rally outside the Houses of Parliament in London on Tuesday when he and hundreds of other farmers from across the country joined to make their objections to the Government’s plans heard.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced plans to do away with the agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief in the Autumn Budget.

APR meant that family farms passed from one generation to the next were exempt from paying inheritance tax.

But she announced that from April 2026 farms worth over £1million will have to pay the tax.

Mr Scott said the change will have a massive impact on his family and others like it nationwide.

He said: “We are a small family farm with just 380 acres we are only just viable. We have been living in this area since 1640 and have been farming here for seven generations – my son is the seventh generation.”

Mr Scott accepted that when figures of £1million are bandied about it sounds like a lot of money, and he could understand why non-farming people may think paying the tax is the right thing to do.

“Of course, £1million sounds like a lot of money to people, it sounds a lot of money to me too,” he said.

But the truth of the matter is that while farms may have a high value on paper, in reality, they do not have large sums of cash sitting in bank accounts.

Mr Scott said it is difficult to calculate exactly how much the inheritance tax bill will be on his farm.

“The government keeps changing the figures all the time. But I have done some calculations which appear to show we would have to pay at least £600,000.

“In order for us to do that we would have to sell some of our land, selling land would make the farm unviable, and the only option would be to sell up completely,” said Mr Scott.

He said he and his family have never considered the monetary value of their farm as it is not about money for them, but about the way of life farming brings them.

He said: “I love my job, of course, I accept we are extremely privileged. We live in a nice house and have a good standard of living. But we do the job because we love it, it is a way of life for our family, and I wanted to pass the farm to my son, just as my father wants to pass it to me.

“The profits are not huge, we could all earn more doing other jobs, but we do it because we love it.

“My father is 85 years old and is utterly retched about what the future might bring for us. There are not that many family farmers left in the country. In my lifetime we have lost at least 50 family farms just in this area near March.”

He said multiple Chancellors of the Exchequer have looked at the question of imposing inheritance tax on family farms, ever since the tax was first introduced in the 1970s. At the time inheritance tax was introduced the APR was also introduced and since then the question of whether successive governments plan to do away with it has always been raised at election times.

Mr Scott said that was the case at this year’s general election when Labour said publicly it had no plans to introduce inheritance tax for farms.

“They lied to us, and it makes you want to question everything and wonder what they will do next,” said Mr Scott, who added that the similar change to the business property relief will have an impact on other family firms such as construction businesses, a lot of which also operate an inheritance-style business model.

“The Government really does need to rethink this. I am normally a quiet person who likes to stay out of the limelight, but I feel so passionately about this that I have agreed to speak up.

“My family faces losing its business or faces struggling to raise the money to pay the tax bill in some way other than selling land. We really hope the Government will take another look at its figures and change its mind on this for the sake of small, family farmers across the country.

“If they don’t then it is a nail in the coffin of small farmers and that would be a tragedy. We will be left with massive farms owned by pension funds and rich businessmen.”