Frome MP Anna Sabine has called on the government to apologise for the ‘damaging impact’ its proposed inheritance tax on family farms had on rural communities.
The government had initially proposed a £1 million limit for full relief. After months of campaigning by farmers across Somerset and the country, the threshold will now rise to £2.5 million from April 2026 for inheritance tax bills when farms are passed to the next generation.
Speaking on the first day of Parliament’s return last week, Anna challenged the Minister for Tax to acknowledge the effect the proposed tax would have had on estates worth £1 million.
She warned that the uncertainty created by the policy had harmed the “whole rural economy”.
While the Liberal Democrats have welcomed the change, Anna stressed that the turmoil inflicted on farmers and rural communities over the past 14 months is inexcusable.
She highlighted that the decline of farms in areas like Frome and East Somerset would have a serious knock-on effect on “huge numbers of businesses and livelihoods that rely on those farms”.
Anna called on the minister to “apologise to communities like mine” and urged the government to “genuinely start listening to rural communities” who feel they are “not understood by – or even cared for by – this government.”
Pictured: MP Anna Sabine
