Save our family farms: M&S Food urges Chancellor to rethink inheritance tax ahead of the Budget

The managing director of M&S Food has warned the Chancellor that a recent change to inheritance tax treatment of family farms risks destroying generational businesses and imperilling the UK’s food security. In a direct appeal ahead of next week’s Budget,

Alex Freudmann said ministers should “think again on inheritance tax” and adopt practical safeguards to protect genuine working farms.

Farming under pressure — and inheritance tax adds to the burden

Farmers are already grappling with extreme weather, volatile global markets, persistently high energy and fertiliser costs, and planning constraints that hinder investment in infrastructure such as water reservoirs, greenhouses and barns.

Against that difficult backdrop, changes to inheritance tax — which now taxes estates on death rather than allowing family farms to pass automatically to the next generation — have introduced fresh uncertainty and dented confidence across rural communities.

“Family farms might look wealthy on paper, but most of that value is tied up in land and buildings that are passed from generation to generation - the value never actually hits their bank accounts,” the statement says, arguing that the new approach forces families to find hard cash to meet tax bills at the point of bereavement — money many farms simply do not have.

The human and economic stakes

Freudmann emphasises the human cost. Elderly farmers who “aren’t expecting to live for the next seven years” have no practical ability to plan around the tax change, leaving bereaved children facing potentially crippling bills that could force sales and end long-standing family enterprises.

Even where farms can raise cash, doing so often means diverting funds from investment in the food chain.

That matters for the wider economy: the food and farming sector is a major part of the UK economy — the press release cites a sector value of £153 billion and 4.2 million jobs — and weakening family farms risks both rural livelihoods and consumers’ access to affordable, fresh food.

A pragmatic alternative: the “minimum share rule”

The statement sets out a concrete policy proposal already advocated by independent tax experts: a minimum share rule.

Under this suggestion, relief from inheritance tax would continue for estates where the farm constitutes the majority of a family’s assets, but would not be available where a farm is merely a token holding within a wider investment portfolio.

The argument is that this approach protects genuine, working family farms while preventing reliefs from being abused — and could be designed so that it is fiscally neutral for the Treasury. In short, the change would “enable genuine, working family farms to continue producing food for the nation, while ensuring reliefs aren’t abused.”

The call to the Chancellor

The M&S Food managing director ends with an unequivocal plea:

“Chancellor, this is in your hands. Think again on inheritance tax. Save our family farms, safeguard our food security, and send a clear message that this country still backs the people who feed it.”

As the Budget approaches, the appeal frames inheritance tax treatment of agricultural estates as an urgent policy choice with consequences for farm viability, rural communities and national food resilence.

Statement in full: By Alex Freudmann, Managing Director, M&S Food

At kitchen tables up and down the country families are talking about the Budget; apprehensively waiting to see what the Chancellor announces. For farming families, up at 4am to milk the herd or out in all weather checking their crops, the fear is not of what might come, but what they already know is in store. 

At the last Budget, farming communities were rocked by the Government’s decision to tax estates when farmers died instead of letting them pass to the next generation.

For many, it was the final straw.

We see Britain’s food story from both sides. One of us represents the farmers who grow and rear the nation’s food.

The other buys those products for millions of customers every week. And we’ve come together with one simple message for the Chancellor ahead of next week’s Budget: think again on inheritance tax for Britain’s family farms.

Tax isn’t the only problem farmers are facing. Weather is increasingly extreme, with this year’s harvest hit by one of the driest springs in a century. Not to mention huge global instability, continuously high energy and fertiliser costs, and planning red tape which is holding back vital infrastructure like water reservoirs, greenhouses and barns. 

Against that backdrop, changes to inheritance tax have injected even more uncertainty and hammered confidence to the lowest levels ever recorded. 

Family farms might look wealthy on paper, but most of that value is tied up in land and buildings that are passed from generation to generation - the value never actually hits their bank accounts. But now when a loved one dies, the tax bill will need to be paid in hard cash. That’s money most farms simply don’t have. 

It’s an unacceptable position to put our elderly farmers in, particularly those who aren’t expecting to live for the next seven years and have no ability to plan to prevent their children being saddled with crippling tax bills. Bills which would destroy the farm they’ve worked so hard to build. 

Even for those farms that might be able to scramble together the cash to pay, it comes at the cost of vital investment in the food and farming sector - worth £153 billion to the economy and 4.2 million jobs. Worse still, farmers could be forced to sell some or all of their business to pay, making many farms unviable for the future. 

Ultimately, these changes make it harder to get affordable, fresh food to families across the country. Why would we want to risk our food security in this way and make feeding ourselves so precarious?

The Chancellor has options. Independent tax experts have proposed a common-sense safeguard: a “minimum share rule”. If a farm makes up the majority of a family’s estate, it would be protected from inheritance tax. If the “farm” is just a token slice of a broader investment portfolio, it wouldn’t be.

That’s fair. It enables genuine, working family farms to continue producing food for the nation, while ensuring reliefs aren’t abused. And it could raise the same funds for the Treasury. A rare win‑win.

Chancellor, this is in your hands. Think again on inheritance tax. Save our family farms, safeguard our food security, and send a clear message that this country still backs the people who feed it.

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