A FARMERS’ march in Westminster on Tuesday gave voice to “a deep concern that rural communities are not being valued or listened to”, the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, said after the event.

More than 10,000 farmers converged on London to protest at changes to inheritance-tax rules announced in the Budget (News, 1 November), which are due to come into force in April 2026. Currently, Agricultural-Property Relief (APR) allows farmers to pass on their farms to their descendants without paying inheritance tax: a rule intended to promote food security and continuity.

“The current crop of ministers has failed”

Under the new policy, farmers would pay no tax on the first £1 million in value of combined agricultural and business property, but 20 per cent tax on anything above that. The National Farmers’ Union (NFU), which held a mass lobby of MPs at Church House, Westminster, before the march, suggests that the new rule would affect 75 per cent of farms and would jeopardise the future of family farms.

The Government has suggested a figure of about 500 estates, saying that the measure is balanced and proportionate.

Bishop Usher, who is the lead bishop on the environment, has tabled three questions in the House of Lords about the impact of changes to small farms.

“Speaking to farmers in Norfolk, I have been struck by the anger about the Budget changes to agricultural property relief from inheritance tax,” he said.

“We are already seeing the impact on farmers’ mental health as they worry about the future. This policy change will negatively impact young people going into farming, the vitality of rural communities, and the ability of future generations for families farming the same land. If small farms are bought up by large companies, there is a danger that this policy would also negatively impact nature.”

The Bishop, who is also a member of Peers for the Planet, spoke in a debate in the Lords last week on renewable energy, warning of the cost of not embracing renewable energy, especially as a global neighbour.

“The predictions for people and planet are stark,” he said. “Ours is the generation that simply must move off our reliance on fossil fuels and embrace a new, cleaner, and more resilient energy future.”