Farmer's anger and distress over 'career-ending' inheritance tax threat
A Norfolk farmer has voiced his anger and distress over "career-ending" new inheritance tax rules which could force the sale of land his family has farmed for three generations.
Chris Blaxell runs White Lodge Farm in Antingham, near North Walsham, with his mother Judith, while also caring for his 89-year-old father Derrick.
Although they are all partners in the family business, the assets are owned by Mr Blaxell's father - who has suffered with Alzheimer's disease for the last 13 years.
After the chancellor's Budget announcement in October, Mr Blaxell said the farm now faces a crippling £700,000 inheritance tax bill when his father passes away.
The government's controversial decision to scrap inheritance tax relief for farms valued over £1m has left countless farming families suddenly vulnerable to a 20pc tax when handing land and assets to the next generation.
Mr Blaxell said even if his bill was paid over a decade, it would snatch the majority of the farm's profits in a good year - and could wipe them out entirely if harvests or prices are poor.
This would leave the family farm unviable, he said, forcing the sale of land which his grandfather Harry bought in 1969.
Mr Blaxell, 55, who has worked on the farm for 40 years, said: "It is career-ending for me.
"Until this, I had no plans to retire. Farmers die with their boots on, and I had every intention of doing that if I didn't have to sell the farm to pay the [inheritance] tax. I don't ever want to do anything else.
"But I could end up losing my farm, my business and my father all within a few months. And I can't think even [chancellor] Rachel Reeves would be as heartless to think that is a good situation to be in."
Mr Blaxell said this will affect "nearly every farmer" - and not all will be able to use the tax exemption if assets are "gifted" to the next generation seven years before the owner dies.
He said: "People will say: 'Why didn't my father gift the farm over earlier?' But because of his diagnosis, legally he couldn't do it for the last 13 years.
"This tax didn't exist until last October, and the advice we were always given was that while we had 100pc relief there was no need to change anything.
"Now I cannot change it, because my father cannot sign anything."
Norfolk farmer Chris Blaxell with his Hereford cattle at White Lodge Farm in Antingham, near North Walsham (Image: Sonya Duncan)
The 300-acre family farm is mainly arable, with extra grassland rented for its herd of Hereford cattle, while Mr Blaxell also contract-farms a 350-acre estate near Sheringham.
He said selling 60-70 acres of the family's land to pay the inheritance tax bill is "not going to help me", as it would leave the remaining farm too small to be profitable.
But he doesn't believe a complete government policy U-turn is necessary.
"There are ways out for them," he said. "If they raised the threshold to £5m it would cut out all the people like me, and still keep the people in they want to tax.
"They could also make it so you can keep farming the land for another ten years and you only pay inheritance tax when you sell it. From my point of view, I wouldn't care if they said 20 years, or 30 or 40. I've got no intention of doing anything else with it.
"For us, it is not a loophole. It is essential relief, to allow our businesses to continue.
"This is not an inheritance, it is merely the change of management of the business. My parents were managing it, and now I am managing it, and that's it. There is no inheritance.
"It does annoy me that my salary, what I pay myself, is about £27,000 a year, but I am being preached at for being a millionaire by people earning 20 or 30 times that."
Earlier this week, farming leaders met with Treasury and Defra ministers to put forward proposals for a "clawback" mechanism which would ensure businesses are only hit with tax bills if assets are sold within a certain period after inheritance.
But, despite industry protests, ministers stood firm and insisted they will not reconsider the changes announced in the autumn Budget, due to come into force from April 2026.
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey (left) visited White Lodge Farm near North Walsham to talk to farmer Chris Blaxell (right) about the impact of new inheritance tax rules (Image: Sonya Duncan) On the same day, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey visited the Blaxell family's farm as part of his party's campaign against the so-called Family Farm Tax.
He said: "They [Treasury ministers] are living on another planet. They don't seem to understand what they are doing, and they don't understand the traditions of British farmers, who have all this expertise, knowledge and understanding of the land, and pass it down from generation to generation.
"That is why the Family Farm Tax has to go, because it will destroy all that."
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