Inheritance Tax

Markus Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Wednesday 14th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Lewis Cocking (Broxbourne) (Con)]

I want to support the family home, family farms and small businesses right across the United Kingdom, and I back this motion. It is a fundamental Conservative principle that, as Margaret Thatcher once said, “freedom flourishes” when people can rely on the security of owning their own home. In the same speech, she made a very important point relevant to this debate when she said that a home is more than a financial asset, as it is a “stake in the future” and something to be passed on to the next generation. That is why inheritance tax matters.

As we have heard, when someone dies, 40% of their money and property is taken by the taxman, if the total value exceeds £325,000. By raising the threshold, hon. Members on all sides of this House accused us of cutting taxes for the wealthiest in our society. I can tell them that the constituents I represent in Broxbourne are certainly not some of the wealthiest in our society. In fact, there are parts of my constituency that rank among the most deprived in the UK. Despite that, average house prices across Broxbourne are £433,000. Houses in my constituency that are just over the threshold include a two-bedroom maisonette in Cheshunt and a two-bedroom bungalow in Hoddesdon. Those properties are not mansions. Homeowners in Broxbourne have worked hard to live in those places, and it is not their fault that property values have risen by more than 10% in the last five years. On that trend, more and more ordinary families are being pulled into paying inheritance tax.

Labour is making this worse by freezing the threshold until 2031. By then, one in six families will face paying an inheritance tax bill. I believe this is wrong. As my hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor set out, we would completely abolish inheritance tax on the family home and raise the threshold to £1 million for a couple. We have a clear plan.

[Markus Campbell-Savours (Penrith and Solway) (Lab)]

I wonder—I have not read this anywhere—is there a cap on the value of the family home that will be exempt? For example, would the penthouse at One Hyde Park, which sold for about £175 million, be completely exempt?

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[Lewis Cocking]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. This is a tax on aspiration.

[Markus Campbell-Savours]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Dr Arthur]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

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[Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)]

If we want our children to have a better life than us, to enjoy a better standard of living than ourselves, to enjoy better healthcare and to live in a better environment, then it is necessary to grow our economy. Conservatives understand that Governments do not create growth. A wise Government will try to create the conditions for growth and then stand back and allow individuals, families, partnerships and businesses to do their best to work hard, provide goods and services that people want to buy, and thus improve the world we live in.

Creating wealth is hard work. I do not suppose that many Government Members are aware of that, because so few of them have ever worked in the private sector. It is quite remarkable that the shadow Chancellor has more experience in the private sector—23 years, I believe—than the whole of the Cabinet put together. This Government often talk about supporting business, yet time and again they do the opposite: higher national insurance charges that make it more expensive to employ people; 350 pages of the un-Employment Rights Act to further drive up the cost of labour; plans for a tourist tax—eagerly embraced by the Liberal Democrats—that will place additional burdens on a tourism sector made up largely of family businesses.

Instead of helping local enterprises flourish, this Government’s first instinct is to ask, “How much more can we tax them?” We know that because the Work and Pensions Secretary told us that his colleagues are always asking him to pay more benefits to more people. Conservatives understand that the drive, innovation and hard work of family farms and businesses do more to create jobs, train apprentices and sustain communities than Government ever could.

My constituency in Bridgwater sits in the heart of rural Somerset; ours is overwhelmingly a small business economy. More than 99% of the businesses in Somerset employ fewer than 250 employees. Those businesses are rooted in the places they serve; they support local sports teams, support village events and provide opportunities for local people. For those of us representing rural communities, small-scale family businesses underpin our local economies. They grow our food, make up our high streets, support tourism and more. That makes the fact that the Government feel no remorse in penalising their hard work, in the name of subsidising those who avoid it, even more depressing.

Conservatives are on the side of those who work hard, save, invest, and create jobs and wealth. We will reward those who do the right thing. That is why we will abolish inheritance tax on family homes, farms and businesses. We will restore fairness to a system that has neglected those who play by the rules. Because when a business passes from one generation to the next, we should help it grow and continue a legacy, not force it to sell assets to pay a tax bill.

[Markus Campbell-Savours]

The motion says “family homes”; it does not specifically say “family farms or businesses”. The hon. Gentleman raises family businesses, so how would someone define a family business for the purposes of legislation?

[Sir Ashley Fox]

If the hon. Gentleman reads it, the motion does specifically refer to family businesses. It is about agricultural property relief and business property relief—they are agricultural and business assets that form part of an estate. We will reverse Labour’s family farm and family business taxes.

The Conservatives believe that allowing families to retain and reinvest their assets supports growth, encourages long-term planning, and strengthens local communities. It will actively put money in pockets, rather than take out more. If we want a prosperous Britain, we must back the people who have invested their lives in the community, building businesses, farms and homes that can be passed to the next generation.

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[Dan Tomlinson]

We will vote against the Opposition motion this evening. The responsible approach that this Government are taking stands in stark—

[Markus Campbell-Savours]

I ask the Minister to please not let the Opposition distract us from what can be done. The SFI debacle the other day demonstrated that farmers are struggling. There is an opportunity to do the right thing at the Budget. He must not let the party that wants to give tax benefits to the owners of £175 million penthouses distract us. There is something in what the Conservatives have written about farm taxes, but it is very different from the wider issue they have raised in this daft motion.

[Dan Tomlinson]

I thank my hon. Friend for his continued advocacy for the farmers in his constituency and across the country. Labour Members engaged constructively with me, the then DEFRA Minister and the then Prime Minister on the issue of the threshold in the inheritance tax changes for farms and businesses, and we made a change late last year to reflect the conversations and concerns on the Government Benches and the representations received then.

On the changes for residential property, it is worth noting before the House that independent analysis has shown that such changes could cost £10.8 billion a year once behavioural effects, which the Opposition did not cost, are taken into account. That means that there is a massive £5 billion black hole in their plans. That shows, as I think the whole House can agree, that the Opposition simply have not learned from the Liz Truss debacle, which pushed up interest rates and the cost of mortgages for constituents of mine in Chipping Barnet and for people across the country. We will not make the mistake that the Opposition made.

The changes on agricultural property relief and business property relief introduced in April this year are expected to raise around £300 million a year while offering protection for family farms and businesses. Through 100% relief on the first £2.5 million of qualifying agricultural and business assets, a couple can pass on up to £5 million of assets between them tax-free, in addition to existing allowances such as the nil rate band.

As we reach 7 pm, I think I should come to a conclusion. To fix our economy for the long term, we must ignore the fantasy economics and the unfunded commitments of the Conservatives, which will lead to economic ruin. Instead, we will stay focused on maintaining the resilience of our economy, where GDP growth has been revised up and we now have the highest growth in the G7, where living standards are rising after they fell in the previous Parliament, where investment is up in the public sector and the private sector, and where productivity is rising at its fastest rate, outside of the pandemic, in more than a decade.

We will reject this motion this evening because we reject tax cuts for those in £10 million homes being paid for by cuts to our public services, including the NHS, police and local government up and down the country. Instead, we on this side of the House will stay focused on delivering good growth in every postcode and, as someone once said, hope in every heart.

Question put.