The cross-party Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee has published the report of its inquiry into “The Government’s Vision for Farming,” to which CenTax Director Dr Arun Advani gave oral evidence on 11 December 2024.
The committee is carrying out a long-term, thematic inquiry into the future of UK farming, with the goal of helping the Government to bolster farming and rural communities’ contribution to food security, biodiversity, employment and the rural and national economies. This is the first report from the project.
In its report, the committee recognises “longstanding concerns” that Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) reliefs “are being used by individuals to shelter wealth and are affecting the price and availability of land for new entrants” and concludes “We support the Government’s objective of reforming to close the loophole that encourages wealthy investors to buy agricultural land to avoid inheritance tax.”
The committee called on the Government to delay the announcement of the final reforms until October 2026, with implementation from 2027, to allow for impact assessments and to give farming businesses more time to obtain professional advice.
Responding to the report, Dr Advani said:
“The committee is right to highlight that the current IHT reliefs for agricultural land are likely to drive up the price and availability of land for new entrants.
“They also correctly point out the need for more evidence on how much different estates will actually need to pay, and whether the proposed reforms are the best way to achieve the desire goals.
“At CenTax we will publish new evidence on these questions in the coming months.”
