The NFU has said that the government will 'reap what it sows' after the 'disappointing' meeting with the Treasury over the inheritance tax proposals.
The union said that the impacts on farming families and the nation’s food security from the IHT changes would 'sit squarely on the government’s shoulders'.
In the meeting on Tuesday (18 February), treasury ministers bluntly refused any suggestion of a compromise offered by farming unions and organisations.
The stark warning comes after exchequer secretary James Murray and food security minister Daniel Zeichner called in representatives from across the farming sector for discussions on a way forward.
The meeting included the NFU, the Tenant Farmers Association, the Country Land and Business Association and the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers.
Speaking after, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said the government 'don't care' about the concerns raised by farming families over the policy, which was announced in the autumn budget.
“On the impact on families who can’t afford vast tax bills coming their way on the death of a loved one; they don’t care," he said.
"On the elderly – the most vulnerable people in our farming community – who feel they are now a burden on their family; they don’t care.
“This morally bankrupt position sits with this government, and, without change, ministers will reap the consequences.”
Mr Bradshaw added: “For the 70 million people living on these islands, food security matters. It matters more given the ever-increasing geopolitical uncertainty.
"While this is shocking for me to say, the only conclusion I can come to is this government doesn’t care about British food production.
"Is this the same government, which in its manifesto said food security is national security?"
From April 2026, the 100% rate of tax relief will continue for the first £1m of combined agricultural and business assets, with a reduced rate of relief of 50% for amounts above this threshold.
At the meeting, the four farming organisations presented a 'clawback' alternative as a way of mitigating some of the consequences of the policy.
However, the the government 'showed no enthusiasm or appetite for compromise', despite the alternative being suggested by tax experts.
Mr Bradshaw continued: “We went into this meeting to offer a solution, a solution, which has been suggested by other tax experts where the inheritance tax policy is based on a clawback mechanism.
“Put simply, farmers don’t get money when they inherit, they get the farm, the business asset, and often the debt. Any money they do get, they get when they sell. So, our suggestion is based on that premise.
“Our suggestion, which is almost revenue neutral meaning the chancellor gets her planned income, is that if an inherited farm is sold then inheritance tax gets paid.”
Mr Bradshaw explained that crucially, this solution would allow family farms that want to continue to produce the nation’s food to do so, while giving the Treasury what it wants.
“We also need to be clear, the current talk that the £500 million this generates, which will be raised on the backs of hard-working and hard-pressed farmers, will rescue the NHS is nonsense.
"This amount will fund the NHS for a day. It’s disingenuous for ministers to repeat this untruth."
The NFU president concluded: “From what we are told, the chancellor has refused even to meet with her own worried MPs on this issue.
"Heads in the sand, fingers in ears, zero empathy. What a way for a government to behave.”
The meeting will be followed by another round of discussions with the Treasury, including representatives from NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland and the Ulster Farmers’ Union.
