M&S have called on new environment secretary Emma Reynolds to back British farmers by rethinking proposed changes to inheritance tax relief for farmers.
The decision to end a decades-old inheritance tax relief – known as Agricultural Property Relief – that allowed farmland to be transferred down a generation tax-free has sparked a serious backlash in Britain.
“We support our farmers’ calls on the government to do more to support farming, and that includes supporting their call for a rethink on inheritance tax,” Alex Freudmann, managing director of M&S Food, told The Times.
M&S has supported pleas by the National Farmers’ Union to extend a consultation into proposed reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief.
The high street stalwart has previously written to Reynold’s predecessor, Steve Reed, to warn him of “doubt … that there was a genuine national commitment to increasing the domestic supply of food”.
A letter from Freudmann read: “A clear and concrete target to increase the proportion of indigenous foods eaten in the UK that are grown in the UK would galvanise cross-government action.
“If it was set down in law, like targets around net zero or nature protection, it could also tilt the balance towards farmers and growers in decisions around planning or access to water. I hope to see a clear and concrete commitment to domestic food production.”
According to official data, 6,365 agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses have shuttered over the past year, the highest number since the data started being collected in 2017.
The Chancellor claimed the relief was being abused as a loophole by super-rich landowners to avoid the unpopular levy when she announced the carve out would end in April 2026, in a move that had the support of several leading economic think tanks.
But it sparked a spate of protests across the country, with farmers warning it could spell the extinction of multi-generational farms in the UK and Labour’s political opponents branding it ‘the family farm tax’.
City AM has contacted The Treasury for comment.