BPR Summit speakers warn of devastating impact of tax raid
© MAG/ Philip Case Family businesses and farming leaders united at the London Palladium for the business property relief (BPR) summit, issuing stark warnings about the government’s proposed inheritance tax reforms.
The event on Monday 16 December, which drew an audience of up to 400 influential industry figures, MPs, family businesses and grassroots campaigners, served as a rallying cry against changes that speakers argued would have disastrous consequences for family-owned enterprises.
The proposed reforms, announced in the Autumn Budget, include a 20% levy on inherited business assets over £1m and tighter restrictions on agricultural property relief (APR) from April 2026.
See also: Farmers warn of ‘no limits’ in fight against ‘family farm tax’
Monday’s summit was organised by a group of farmers, including Olly Harrison, Andrew Ward, Martin Williams and Clive Bailye, who previously organised the London Farming Rally outside Westminster on 19 November, which saw thousands of people, including Jeremy Clarkson, protest against the changes.
Mr Harrison, a fifth-generation farmer and prominent YouTuber, said he might have to sell parts of the farm when inheriting it from his 76-year-old father Thomas to pay the taxes.
“I was up on the roof the other day, which my dad put up in 1985, fixing some storm damage – there is still a massive storm raging at the moment and it is able to destroy a lot of businesses,” he added.
Mr Harrison spoke of the growing solidarity among farmers and the broader family business community in response to the IHT reforms.
“We’re building an army. Last time we were 45,000 strong; this time, we’re aiming for 250,000,” he said, hinting at plans for a bigger protest this spring.
‘Why crash the economy?’ asks CLA boss
Country Land and Business Association (CLA) president Victoria Vyvyan urged the government to reconsider its changes to inheritance tax and business property relief (BPR), highlighting the economic and social risks of the changes.
“Why crash our economy, when we can be part of the answer?” she said, in a direct plea to chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Ms Vyvyan added that the Labour government must “have the humility to say they got it wrong”.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, the powerful voice representing the broad hospitality sector, said it was facing a “cliff edge” and a “huge tsunami of extra costs and taxes” coming this April, which would affect some of the lowest paid workers, “hit” rural job opportunities and increase prices for consumers.
At the summit, small business owners shared their personal stories of anxiety, with some warning that imposing APR and BPR taxes on top of increases in national insurance costs and the national minimum wage from next April threatened the closure of their businesses.
Cross-party criticism
Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale Tim Farron said he was “incensed” by the government’s IHT changes, calling them “just as terrifying” for small businesses as APR changes for farmers.
Mr Farron dismissed the government’s “nonsense” narrative that these are wealthy individuals, explaining: “The typical farmer in my community sits on a farm worth millions but earns less than minimum wage.”
He warned the policy would force farmers to sell to “massive equity firms,” calling it “immoral and wrong” and a “Lakeland clearance.”
‘Tax raid is growth killer’ – Badenoch
The summit closed with a speech by Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who framed Labour’s inheritance tax raid on family businesses and farms as a direct threat to the UK’s economy.
Citing research from CBI Economics, Ms Badenoch highlighted an estimated £2.6bn drop in tax revenue over five years due to 16% reduced investment by family businesses and a projected 125,000 job losses (equivalent to the population of Blackburn).
CBI Economics estimates the IHT changes will hit economic output by £9.4bn.
Ms Badenoch concluded with a clear commitment to reverse the changes to BPR and APR if the Conservatives win back power in the future.
“We will reverse this damaging tax grab at the earliest opportunity,” she told attendees.
She added: “We are the party of entrepreneurs. We’re the party of every business because we know that it is not government that creates growth, it is business that creates growth.”
Organisers, backed by the London Palladium and Lord Lloyd Webber, hope the summit will mark a turning point in the fight to safeguard the UK’s family businesses and farms.
A Treasury spokesman said: “We’ve capped corporation tax at 25%, confirmed full permanent expensing, and are committed to unlocking growth.
“Difficult choices were needed to address a £22bn fiscal black hole. Impact analysis on BPR changes will be published alongside draft legislation in 2025.”
Farmers explain what they want next from government
The government faces a “winter of discontent” if it presses on with its tax raid on hardworking family farms and family businesses, farmers have warned.
Staffordshire farmer Clive Bailye also warned that the government would trigger “the mother of all recessions” if it goes ahead with its APR and BPR changes.
During a question and answer session at the BPR summit, farmers were asked what they felt the government should do next.
Jamie Blackett, a writer and sixth-generation farmer who farms on the Solway Firth in south-west Scotland, urged the government to “listen to their own advisers who were telling them this is a bad idea”.
“I think [tax expert] Dan Neidle’s idea of some sort of clawback, raise the threshold and then have a clawback if farm is sold. That would be fair enough to pay the inheritance tax,” said Mr Blackett.
North Yorkshire farmer David Sowray said the government should raise the threshold on APR from £1m to £10m or possibly even £20m to avoid penalising hardworking family farms and smaller businesses.
Mr Bailye said the government should pause its plans and “take away the massive stress everyone was facing now”.
Secondly, he urged the government “to act more sensibly” on its taxing policy.
“Trying to tax wealth isn’t the same as trying to tax our income, or our profits,” said Mr Bailye. “We [farmers] haven’t actually got the liquid funds to pay that.”