Arable farmer Andrew Long, of Hall Farm, near Bury St Edmunds, speaks of concerns over inheritance tax changes affecting UK farmers

A third-generation farmer based just outside Bury St Edmunds has said the inheritance tax changes would ‘do untold damage’ to agriculture in the UK.

Andrew Long, of Hall Farm, Fornham St Martin, spoke to the Bury Free Press today as farmers rallied in London over the government’s planned changes to inheritance tax.

From April 2026, inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1 million, which were previously exempt, will be liable to the tax at 20 per cent – half the usual rate.

Arable farmer Mr Long said the changes would affect his family members of ‘inheriting and taking the farm further on beyond me’, adding: “It will have huge financial consequences.”

However, the point he was keen to stress was of the importance of food security: food is one of the three entities (along with power and water) that we need to survive.

He said: “What we are doing is we are sacrificing food security in this country for the sake of trying to get a few million pounds out of the farms in the UK. It would do untold damage to a system of agriculture in the UK which has supported us through two world wars and the difficult times this country and this world is having.”

He added: “I think it puts the country at serious risk of being short of food in a crisis.”

He is a third-generation farmer whose grandfather started farming there in 1919 when ‘the country was on its knees’.

Mr Long, whose son works with him and is fourth generation, said they farm 3,000 acres and own about 1,500 acres.

The farm produces 12,000 tonnes of onions and 20,000 tonnes of potatoes every year, as well as growing cereals and rape.

Mr Long said: “As farmers we know we have got valuable land, but we pass it down so we can grow and make a living and feed the country.

“We are not cashing in on it. If we tax it, who will buy it? My son won’t be able to buy it.”

Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves revealed in the autumn budget that she would ‘reform agricultural property relief’ from April 2026.

The government says the change will only affect the wealthiest 500 estates each year but the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) have estimated up to 70,000 farms could be affected.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed said ‘we've had to ask those with the broadest shoulders to pay a little bit more’, saying the vast majority of farmers would ‘pay nothing’.

However, Mr Long said ‘£1 million is not a very big farm’. “I think it [the changes] need looking at – a consultation, an understanding of how this might work going forwards,” he said.

Farmers to travel to London today for the NFU's mass lobby of Parliament included a bus-load that set off from Bury St Edmunds.