On 14 January 2025, The Right Honourable Graham Stuart (Member of Parliament for Beverley and Holderness) moved the motion “That this House has considered the impact of planned changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief on small businesses” in a thirty-minute Westminster Hall debate. In this article, Nicholas Thompson, a Trainee Solicitor in our Private Client Team, summarises the debate (a full transcript of the debate is available here: Agricultural and Business Property Relief - Hansard - UK Parliament)
Whilst Westminster Hall debates do not involve a vote, they do provide an opportunity for Members of Parliament to raise awareness of issues and seek change in government policy. As Mr. Stuart noted, the time allotted for the debate ‘was so short for something so big’ and meant that he was the principal speaker, with James Murray (Member of Parliament for Ealing North and The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury) providing the government response. Members of Parliament discussed a range of issues affecting the United Kingdom’s agrarian economy including:
- local knowledge of farming topography such as watercourses;
- the contention that the threshold for 100% relief should be set at four to five million pounds;
- the fact that the richest and most sophisticated will find it easiest to avoid the impact of the proposed changes;
- the inequitable application of the proposed changes across the United Kingdom, such as in Northern Ireland where agricultural land values are highest and where there is a concentration of family farms which would be crippled for future changes should the government pursue the proposed changes;
- the permanent negative impact on the nation’s food security resulting to the permanent loss of farmland and the livelihoods of families who have devoted generations to feeding the nation;
- the reduced investment in family farms which will result from the proposed changes and the negative impact this will have on profitability and supply;
- the inconsistency of Steven Reed OBE (Member of Parliament for Streatham and Croydon North and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) between his statement to farmers in November 2023, “We have no intention of changing APR,” and the changes to APR and BPR proposed in the Autumn Budget 2024; and
- the abolition of inheritance tax in Sweden in 2004 combined with the resulting flourishing of entrepreneurship in that country.
In this case, the debate was instigated by the UK Government and Parliament Petition “Don’t change inheritance tax relief for working farms” (available here: Don't change inheritance tax relief for working farms - Petitions (parliament.uk)) which, at date of publication, has been signed by 145,788 people. This petition will be debated by Parliament on 10 February 2025.
If this affects you or your family we would be happy to assist with legal advice regarding reliefs currently available and estate planning measures which might be taken now. We can advise anyone who may need to update their existing Will, or make one for the first time, in order to ensure their estate planning is up to date. A professionally drawn Will alongside an estate planning strategy, both updated at regular intervals, is always advisable to minimise the risk of falling foul of changes to legislation.
Please contact Catherine Pugsley or Nicholas Thompson on 0207 222 5381 to discuss this further.