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A source close to Rachel Reeves has strongly denied reports that the government is about to exempt farmers aged 80 and over from the family farm tax in a bid to end a revolt in rural England.
The prime minister and the chancellor are under growing pressure to provide some relief for farmers amid growing anger over the decision to extend inheritance tax to include family farms.
The changes mean that farms valued at £1 million or more would be liable for 20 per cent inheritance tax. The Treasury claim that in reality with tax allowances it would mean only farms worth £3 million would be affected covering just 28 per cent of family farms. But Defra figures appear to suggest as many as 66 per cent could be hit.
Thousands of farmers brought Westminster to a standstill on Tuesday when they descended on the capital to voice their opposition to the changes. Earlier on Thursday the Independent revealed the 81 Labour seats most at risk as a result of the backlash, and it has since been reported that the concession was being considered to give the farming sector longer to plan.
According to The Guardian officials are now looking at options including an exemption for over-80s.
It came as Downing Street denied that the prime minister and chancellor had an emergency meeting today on the issue.
But when the report was put to Ms Reeves’s office asking if the report was true, a source close to the chancellor replied: “No”.
However, even if the move was being planned, farmers’ representatives and supporters made it clear that the concession would not nearly be enough.
Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), said: “The average age of death in the UK is around 80, so they should bring it down to 73 to allow them to use the seven-year gifting rule.
“If they are looking at how they create an exemption for the elderly members of the industry then the exemption should come in seven years before the average age of death. I would prefer an exemption before April 2026, when the rules come in, so you can make the transfer and don’t have to survive the seven years, but we have far better options on the table if they come out for consultation. We could come up with a policy that would answer the questions but be far better for the industry.”
Mo Metcalf-Fisher, external affairs director for the Countryside Alliance, added: “If true, while it’s reassuring to see the government may finally acknowledge that the family farm tax is a flawed policy, it still has to make the right calls about mitigating the impact on family farms.
“It is vital that this time ministers listen to the farming industry and reach a solution that will not see family farms bearing the brunt of this change. There is still a long way to go to heal Labour’s relationship with the countryside.”
The reports came after environment secretary Steve Reed received a mooted response when he spoke at the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).
Opening the CLA’s rural business conference, the organisation’s president Victoria Vyvyan warned: “Farmers, landowners and businesses in the rural economy are facing a very bleak future, if we have one at all.”
Mr Reed told delegates at the conference in central London that farming leaders and individual farmers he spoke to during Tuesday’s protest had told him the Budget was the “final straw” after decades of issues, as he pledged to work with rural communities to support them.
He was challenged in the conference over the issue of elderly farmers thinking the only way through the changes to inheritance tax was to take their lives before the measures came in in April 2026.
In response, he said he wanted to listen to understand how the government could make the changes easier to bear.
But he also warned the country “can’t go on the way that it was” and Budget decisions on tax and spending were made to restore economic stability, and to support public services such as the NHS the elderly relied on.
“The prize is for the long term, and an economy that works for the future, for every single person in every single part of the country, including our rural communities,” he said.
