Figures from the UK farmland market suggest that one of the principal aims of the Government\u2019s controversial inheritance tax reforms \u2013 discouraging wealthy non-farmers from buying agricultural land for tax purposes \u2013 may be starting to have the desired effect.<\/p>\n
The latest\u00a0edition of\u00a0Private Eye\u00a0points to figures from land agents Strutt & Parker showing that the proportion of farmland purchases made by so-called \u201clifestyle buyers\u201d fell to\u00a011 per cent in 2025, down from\u00a016 per cent in 2024.<\/p>\n
At the same time, purchases by farmers rose to\u00a059 per cent, their highest proportion for seven years. The figures are based on the number of transactions rather\u00a0than the acreage involved.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The trend is backed by Strutt & Parker\u2019s own annual farmland review. It says farmers accounted for more than half of purchases in England during 2025, marking the second consecutive year in which their share increased. However, the firm cautions that investor buyers still tend to acquire larger farms, meaning the picture is\u00a0different when measured by acreage rather than transactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is also evidence of a cooling market. Knight Frank\u2019s Farmland Index\u00a0found that the average price of bare agricultural land in England and Wales fell by around\u00a05 per cent during 2025, the largest annual decline since 2017.<\/p>\n
The figures are particularly significant given the political row that erupted over Rachel Reeves\u2019s reforms.<\/p>\n
The controversy actually began in October 2024, rather than 2025, when Reeves announced plans in her first Budget to reform Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief. The original proposal would have restricted 100 per cent relief to the first \u00a31 million of qualifying agricultural and business property from April 2026, with a 20 per cent effective rate applying above that threshold.\u00a0GOV.UK+1\u00a0<\/p>\n
The announcement triggered a series of demonstrations, including the huge Westminster protest in November 2024 attended by figures including\u00a0Jeremy Clarkson, Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch. Further rallies followed in February and March 2025, with Farage and Badenoch again backing the farmers\u2019 campaign.<\/p>\n
The Government subsequently increased the threshold to\u00a0\u00a32.5 million per individual, allowing spouses or civil partners to potentially pass on up to \u00a35 million of qualifying agricultural or business assets before the new relief restrictions bite. The changes came into force on 6 April 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The latest figures therefore offer an interesting counterpoint to the political campaign against the policy. They do not, on their own, prove that the tax change caused the shift in buying patterns \u2014 Strutt & Parker notes that other economic factors are at play\u00a0\u2014 but they are consistent with the argument that removing some of the tax advantage attached to farmland can make it less attractive to non-farming investors.<\/p>\n
It is a point\u00a0The London Economic\u00a0made when the reforms were first announced.<\/p>\n
As we wrote in November 2024:\u00a0\u201cThe reality is that we need far more Kaleb\u2019s and less Clarkson\u2019s if we really want to sort the nation\u2019s food supply conundrum.\u201d\u00a0thelondoneconomic.com\u00a0<\/p>\n
The emerging evidence suggests that, at least when it comes to who is buying farmland, the balance may finally\u00a0be moving in that direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Figures from the UK farmland market suggest that one of the principal aims of the Government\u2019s controversial inheritance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,10235,174,175,18781],"class_list":["post-623963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jeremy-clarkson","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-rachel-reeves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}