Notts farmers protesting in London over 'savage' inheritance tax changes

Dozens of Nottinghamshire farmers will join a protest in London following Rachel Reeve's inheritance tax changes announced during the Budget. A group of 150 farmers from Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire will descend on the streets of Westminster in response to the government's "savage attack".

This comes as farms will be subject to inheritance tax from April 2026, meaning those inheriting will have to pay 20 per cent of the value of their properties above £1 million. Agricultural properties have previously been passed down tax-free.

Simon Orson, a Leicestershire councillor whose farm extends across both Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, has organised the group formed of 150 farmers to go down to the capital. Thousands of farmers from all over the country are expected at the protest organised by the National Farmers' Union (NFU) on Tuesday, November 19.

Mr Orson, who has been a farmer his entire life, says his farm, located in the Vale of Belvoir, is now in danger due to the inheritance tax changes. The 36-year-old, who owns his family's arable farm, said: "My farm has been handed on generation from generation for 300 years.

"Rachel Reeves' Budget will probably mean that might have to come to an end because I might have to sell land to pay for the inheritance tax bill which means my farm will be not quite as viable. They also announced delinked payments were going to be slashed, which means I'm down thousands of pounds.

"I've made commitments and promises based on what we originally knew in terms of money to be received, but I'm now not getting that money so I need to try to make up quite a significant shortfall all of a sudden." Mr Orson, 36, added that major worries are also surrounding food security.

The Conservative councillor said: "In lockdown, farmers were considered key workers, but now we're considered unnecessary. It has been a savage attack by the Labour government, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.

"It's not just affecting farm owners, but the whole of the countryside. Farming is not just an industry where we look after our own. We go out and spend money within our local communities so it affects the whole of the countryside, not just farmers."