Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs made of the impact of reducing inheritance tax relief on agricultural and business property on farmer suicide rates before taking the decision to do so.

The Government encourages anyone who is concerned about their own mental health, or the mental health of those around them, to seek support. The Government takes mental health support for farmers very seriously. For example, Defra supports farming welfare organisations through funding the Farmer Welfare Grant. The fund supports projects in England designed to offer tailored support to farmers and their families, including preventing cases of poor mental health within farming communities, and to deliver a range of essential services, including one-to-one support.

The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, fixing the public finances, and funding public services. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992. Where inheritance tax is due, those liable for a charge can pay any liability on the relevant assets over 10 annual instalments, interest-free.

As announced at Budget 2025, any unused £1 million allowance for the 100% rate of agricultural property relief and business property relief will be transferable between spouses and civil partners, including if the first death was before 6 April 2026.

The Government has set out that the reforms are expected to result in up to 375 estates across the UK claiming agricultural property relief, including those also claiming business property relief, paying more inheritance tax in 2026-27. This is a reduction from up to 520 estates forecast to pay more at Autumn Budget 2024. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, will not pay any more tax as a result of the changes in 2026-27, based on the latest available data.

A report by the independent Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) published in August 2025, prior to the announcement at Budget 2025, concluded that half of the estates paying more would see an increase in their effective inheritance tax rate of less than 5 percentage points, and 86 per cent of these estates could pay their entire inheritance tax bill out of non-farm assets.