Whitehall came under fire at the Isle of Wight Farming Conference yesterday (Thursday) with one attendee asking how the government can “recover from its start”.
Controversial tax changes announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Autumn surfaced during questions from the floor after keynote speaker Robert Shepherd finished a talk on the role of farming communities in contributing towards future sustainability, prosperity and environmental stewardship.
A range of issues debated
Wight Rural Hub’s day of talks covering issues including farming subsidies, climate change and land use followed a County Hall vote on Wednesday evening to support Isle of Wight farmers in light of the government’s changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR), forms of inheritance tax relief for farmers and landowners.
From 6th April 2026, 100 per cent relief from inheritance tax will only apply to the first £1 million of total agricultural and business property.
Shepherd: Gov “couldn’t have made more of a mistake in terms of everything they’ve done”
A member of the audience at the East Afton Farmhouse near Freshwater asked Mr Shepherd,
“From a farming perspective, how does the government recover from its start?”
The director of the Environmental Farmers Group said,
“They couldn’t have made more of a mistake in terms of everything they’ve done…on the inheritance tax thing which I have no strong feelings about, they can’t say in one breath that no one is going to be affected and then in another breath say that that money is going to save the NHS.”
Mr Shepherd said he believed the money raised by the tax changes would be enough to run the NHS for “one day”.
Robert Shepherd, director of the Environmental Farmers Group © Rufus Pickles
Stuart: Farmers “incandescent with anger and fear” towards the changes
Another attendee at the conference, county councillor Nick Stuart, who represents Brighstone, Calbourne and Shalfleet told the press that farmers in his ward had reacted with “incandescent anger and fear” towards the changes.
He said,
“It’s a major impact and a major problem. And it will damage small scale farmers as much or more than anybody else. They could have gone about it a very different way.”
Munt: Isle of Wight farmers are incredibly concerned
Robyn Munt, county chair of the Isle of Wight National Farmer’s Union (NFU), said,
“Isle of Wight farmers are incredibly concerned.
“It just shows a complete lack of understanding from government in terms of how our businesses operate.”
Whitehall has said it is ‘better targeting’ the inheritance tax reliefs ‘to make them fairer, protecting small family farms’.
In a paper published in November, the government said,
“The latest figures show that the top seven per cent (the largest 117 claims) account for 40 per cent of the total value of agricultural property relief.
“This costs the taxpayer £219 million. The top two per cent of claims (37 claims) account for 22 per cent of agricultural property relief, costing £119 million.
“It is not fair for a very small number of claimants each year to claim such a significant amount of relief, when this money could better be used to fund our public services.”
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
