Farmers fought back against Labour's tax raid – and won

In the final days of 2025, the government did the right thing. It listened to farmers and growers, it listened to its own Labour backbenchers, and it raised the thresholds for agricultural property relief and business property relief from £1m to £2.5m.

- TOM BRADSHAW

The change has taken 14 months of persistent campaigning by the NFU and its members, hours of calls with Labour backbenchers representing rural seats, resulting in a rebellion with nearly 40 abstentions from the vote on Budget Resolution 50, and the sight of thousands of farmers and their families digging in deep, standing up for what they knew to be right.

Dubbed the family farm tax, the changes announced in last year's Budget saw the removal of agriculture property relief and business property relief for assets over £1m. Those changes came as a huge shock to the farming community. Until that moment, the best tax-planning advice was to hold on to your farm until death and pass it on to the next generation, who could continue to run a viable farming business and help to feed the nation.

While tax relief for assets of £1m may sound like a lot of money, in practice its removal meant many family farms facing unplanned tax bills of hundreds of thousands of pounds, decimating years of hard work, killing investment plans, and leaving many food-producing businesses unviable in the process.