UFU president not giving up on IHT change

The president of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), William Irvine has said UK farm organisations will not give up in their fight against proposed reforms of inheritance tax (IHT).

Under those reforms, a new £1m threshold for agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) from IHT would come into effect from April 2026.

“We will not let this issue drop. We will continue to fight until we secure a fair and sensible resolution,” Irvine told attendees at the UFU annual dinner in Cookstown last Friday night.

Those attendees included local politicians and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the NI Office, Fleur Anderson. The Labour MP heard a very withering assessment of the performance of her government from the UFU president.

“Sadly the complete lack of understanding of agriculture by successive governments has been nothing short of tragic. The current Labour administration has taken this to new depths with its reckless proposal to scrap APR and BPR,” said Irvine.

He maintained that despite government claims the IHT changes will have minimal impact on family farms, this has been “thoroughly dismantled by every independent analysis”.

Under attack

However, the UFU president also touched on recent policy changes in England, including a sudden decision to close the Sustainable Farming Incentive Scheme and plans to value land at agricultural value rather than development value when subject to compulsory purchase.

According to Irvine, both policies provide further evidence that the future of farming is under attack.

He said that the failure of UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves to engage with farm industry leaders around all these issues is “frankly inexcusable”.

“Yes, the UK faces economic difficulties, but the solution is not to strangle productive sectors. No country has ever taxed its way to prosperity,” said Irvine.