The Bishop of Chelmsford received the following written answers on 12th December 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford asked His Majesty’s Government:
- whether they plan to review their analysis, including assumptions, which informed their decision to reduce agricultural property relief for inheritance tax.
- what consideration they have given to tapering or staggering the reduction of agricultural property relief for inheritance tax to give farmers time to put their tax affairs in order.
- what assessment they have made of the analysis by the National Farmers’ Union that figures from the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs indicate that 66 per cent of farms will be affected by the proposed changes to agricultural property relief; and what is the reason for the difference between this figure and the Treasury’s calculation that 28 per cent of farms will be affected.
Lord Livermore (Lab, Treasury): The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms(opens in a new tab).
It is expected that up to up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief will be affected by these reforms. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) each year are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.
HMRC and Defra data describe different things. The Defra data shows the asset value of farms in England. However, it is not possible to accurately infer a future inheritance tax liability from data on farm asset values. HMRC data relates to estates making claims for agricultural property relief.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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