Support for farmers in a local ‘town hall rebellion’

A growing number of local councils have voted overwhelmingly to support farmers against the Government’s inheritance tax on family holdings. 

Suffolk, North Northamptonshire, Devon, Cambridgeshire and Harborough join Cornwall, Buckinghamshire and Staffordshire Moorlands in publicly opposing Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s changes to the tax. 

In Suffolk, a motion proposed by council leader Councillor Matthew Hicks argued that the tax risks threatening the viability of the county’s farming sector and putting the nation’s food security at risk. 

Devon County Council voted to give its full support to farmers and called for the immediate withdrawal of the proposed family farm tax. 

Members of Harborough District Council in Leicestershire backed a motion demanding the decision is revisited and the impact on individuals and the economy is fully considered. In North Northamptonshire the tax was described as “ideologically driven”. 

Mo Metcalf-Fisher, director of external affairs for the Countryside Alliance, commented: “Our team has contacted councillors across the country, urging them to publicly oppose this awful tax. The town hall rebellion appears to be sweeping across England quickly and we thank those councils that have made a stand already.”