Disappointment for family farms as no expected change to IHT rules

There had been some speculation – perhaps borne more out of hope than expectation – that the Chancellor might have raised the £1 million limit for 100% relief to a level which would have lifted more family farms out of a potential inheritance tax liability, or at the very least made that £1 million limit more easily transferable without the need for complicated advance planning and rewriting wills. 

The measure was put in place principally to deter large non-farming investors from buying up agricultural land purely to avoid paying inheritance tax, and a relatively modest measure such as increasing the limit to £1.5 million or even £2 million would still have achieved that objective but really helped hundreds of small and medium sized farming businesses across our region. 

I suspect that the NFU-led #StopTheFamilyFarmTax campaign will continue, though.  The changes are not due to come in until April 2026, and it is still possible that some form of mitigation of the measure could be announced in the autumn Budget.