WEST WORCESTERSHIRE MP Dame Harriett Baldwin is set to meet with a delegation of county farmers worried about how inheritance tax changes will impact their future.
Thousands of farmers from all over the country are planning to travel to London to meet with their MPs and call for a reverse of the new inheritance tax rules introduced in the Budget.
The changes could force family farms to be split and sold off to pay tax bills when owners die. After £1 million, farm assets will now attract inheritance tax of 20 per cent, a far cry from the
Agricultural Property Relief offered to farmers which has helped for years in enabling the smooth transition of farmland and assets from generation to generation.
In response to these budget announcements, the MP will meet a delegation of farmers who work the land in her West Worcestershire constituency.
Dame Harriett said: “There are hundreds of family farms in West Worcestershire and many farmers feel betrayed by the budget which ends the Agricultural Property Relief after the Labour party said they had no plans to change it.
“I regularly meet with farmers and visit their family farms, so it is important to me that I am able to meet with them when they come to my place of work.
“Farmers do a vital job putting food on our tables and food security should be a matter of national importance.
“Taxing farms out of existence will only mean fewer food producers and inevitably higher prices when we come to pay our weekly shopping bills.
“The Chancellor should reverse this tax changes and help to protect our farmers and their future.”
