Colchester farmer 'can’t see a way out' over inheritance tax

Farmers across the UK are in uproar after the Autumn 2024 budget will introduce inheritance tax to farms worth more than £1million from 2026.

Will Ralph, 62, built his farm from the ground up in Turkey Cock Lane, in Stanway, with his father.

Will said: “We both sacrificed so much to get here, and I’m so passionate.

“The next generation just won’t be able to afford the tax—I just can’t see a way of carrying it on when I go.

“I just get so emotional over it. It’s 46 years of work wasted.”

Farmer - Will built his farm from the ground up with his father nearly 50 years ago (Image: Newsquest) Will worked on several farms after leaving school in 1979, until he was able to buy land and build a house and free-range chicken farm with his father.

Back then, there were about 17 farms in the area. Now, including Will, there are just three.

He said: “Farming is a way of life.

“We work 80 hours a week because we love it—that’s the only reason I keep doing it at 62.

“We’re very rich in our lifestyle because we’re out in the fields all day, which is the most fantastic place to be.

“But we never generate any cash—we’re sat on a pile of land that’s worth a fortune, and we have a nice house, but we have no money to pay that tax.

“It’s just the end of agriculture. As we get older, we won’t be able to hand it on.

“It’s just so heartbreaking.”

Community - Will has a farm shop which holds goods from local farms and craftspeople (Image: Newsquest) Even while recovering from a brush with cancer in early 2021, Will kept working on his farm as much as he could because he needed to make an income.

He had to be carried inside from his tractor because he was too weak to walk.

Will said: “I just lie awake at night thinking, 46 years… and it’s all going to be taken away, and some stranger is going to have it.

“I can’t see a way out. It has to be reversed, or they have to think of something better.

“We won’t give up—the farmers won’t give up.”

The Government said yesterday it is confident in its estimates the vast majority of farmers will remain unaffected by inheritance tax changes.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said the “vast majority” of estate owners will be “totally unaffected” by the Government’s policy and said farmers had been "victim to scaremongering." 

A No 10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister in his press conference yesterday recognises that there are concerns amongst farmers about the policy and that is why the Government has a job to do to communicate the policy and our expectation, which is that the vast majority of farmers will be unaffected by the change.”

She added: “That is because the Treasury’s figures are based on actual claims looked at by HMRC and which take into account different individual circumstances of different farms. We are confident in those figures and urge farmers to look at their arrangements in light of that.”