Claims IHT rules may change to make it easier for farmers aged over 80 to pass on estates denied

The Government has denied claims it is looking at changing inheritance tax rules to make it easier for farmers aged over 80 to pass their estates down.

Farming groups have been calling for the change, which would water down the Government’s inheritance tax raid on farmers, since it was announced in the Budget.

Last month, the Chancellor announced 20 per cent inheritance tax would be imposed on farm assets worth more than £1 million from April 2026.

On Thursday, The Guardian reported that the Government was considering amending gifting rules for over-80s to mean they do not have to live an additional seven years.

But the Treasury has denied it is making any changes to the policy, which the Government has vociferously defended since it was introduced in the Budget.

A Treasury spokesman said: “We remain committed to fully implementing the policy and are not considering mitigations.”

The Government has not yet done a full impact assessment of exactly who will be hit by the policy, and has been accused by campaigners of vastly underestimating the consequences of the tax.

It has argued that the changes will only impact around a quarter of farms, and said the changes are necessary to help plug the gap in its finances.

The reports came after Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, appeared at the Country Land and Business Association’s (CLA) annual conference on Thursday.

He was challenged over the mental health impact on older farmers, and said the Government would “listen to try and understand how we can make that easier to bear”.

But he said the “country can’t go on the way that it was going on. We’ve become a basket case globally for international investors”.

He later told reporters that it was “never too late to look at your tax planning and your succession planning”, even if farmers were as old as 93.

Mr Reed also refused to apologise for the anxiety caused to farmers over the changes, which he said were necessary to fund rural public services.

“It’s hard to be sorry for trying to make this country’s economy work and our public services work,” he told reporters.

The Government says the changes will reduce the amount of people buying farmland to avoid taxes, and says the tax break disproportionately benefits the wealthiest 7 per cent of estates.

But it has been accused by farming groups of carrying out a vindictive plan that could force the break-up of family farms and threaten food security.

More than 10,000 farmers came out on the streets of London on Tuesday to protest against the plans, and the National Farmers’ Union has vowed not to stop in its calls for a U-turn.

Ministers in Defra, including Mr Reed, have been sent out to defend the policy, despite reports they were not consulted on the plans.

In his speech to the CLA, Mr Reed said he had “heard the anguish of the countryside on the streets of London earlier this week”, and said the gap between rural and urban Britain was “becoming quite a chasm now”.

He announced that the Government would soon produce a 25-year farming roadmap that would “focus on making farming and food production more profitable in the decades to come”.

“We may not agree over the inheritance tax changes, but this government is determined to listen to rural Britain and end its long decline,” he said.