Worries For NI Farmers After Budget Announcement

There are significant fears that the UK Budget announcement will have a negative impact for Northern Ireland farmers.

New measures outlined in the Budget included changes to the Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief.

The first £1m of combined business and agricultural assets from April 2026 will face no inheritance tax, however, it will apply at an effective rate of 20%, for assets above this amount.

Fears have now arose at how this will impact local farms, especially family-owned, whose owners wish to hand them down through their generations.

Ulster Unionist Peer, Lord Elliott, said: "The significant changes to Agricultural Property Relief in the Budget are likely to force many family farms out of business that have been within the family structure for generations.

"This decision coupled with the resolution that the NI farm support budget will no longer be ring-fenced, but instead be part of the Block Grant that DAERA will have to bid for is likely to cause farmers to go out of business and lead to significant increases in the cost of food in shops and supermarkets.

"The result will not only be bad for the farming community but also for food consumers and the public in general.

"The current government are certainly demonstrating an offensive against the agricultural sector that has the potential to have devastating consequences." Meanwhile, DUP's Agriculture spokesperson at Westminster, Carla Lockhart MP, added: "The UK farming unions were clear in their warnings ahead of the budget of the impact that weakening Agricultural Property Relief would have.

"The Chancellor's words about family farming ring entirely hollow when the very definition of a family farm is about being able to see the next generation of that family take over and allow agricultural production to continue into the future.

"If they are forced to sell part of a farm in order for it to pass to the next generation then very quickly the family farm which the Chancellor talks of simply won’t exist.

"The threshold imposed by the Government will also be surpassed by many farms, leaving them facing a potentially significant tax bill. This will be the case right across the United Kingdom and it is inevitable that it will face very significant opposition within Parliament.

"Should the Government decide to continue with their policy, then there will also be a strong focus on why they have decided to set the threshold at a level that will impact many more farms than the number claimed by the Chancellor."

She continued: "There is one other element to the budget which will require additional scrutiny. It is indicated that from 2025-26 that the Barnett formula will apply to funding for agriculture and fisheries rather than the ringfenced addition to the block grant.

"This poses significant questions for not just the UK's central policy in relation to agricultural support but on where this will sit within the priorities of devolved institutions.

"It will be important to hear from the Agriculture Minister locally and his Department's assessment of this."