Debate contribution: Inheritance Tax Changes: Impact on Family Farms

Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on 11 February 2025.

MLA

Mr Robbie Butler

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

11 February 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Inheritance Tax Changes: Impact on Family Farms

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4793683

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the motion tabled by Sinn Féin in the names of Declan McAleer, Nicola Brogan and Áine Murphy. It is really useful to be able to highlight the mounting financial pressures that face farming families across Northern Ireland. Those pressures are compounded by inflation, rising living costs, planning restrictions and delays in tackling the scourge of bovine TB. All of that is set against the backdrop of economic uncertainty, with global markets opening further due to trade deals, such as the EU-Mercosur partnership agreement, which threatens to undercut local produce and further lower imports from outside Northern Ireland. Added to that burden is the uncertainty that surrounds future support from the Department in meeting climate and environmental challenges. There is no doubt that farmers want to play their part in tackling change, but they need clarity, stability and funding. I will focus on the specific threat, which is mentioned in the motion, to the future of family farms brought about by the changes to inheritance tax announced in the Chancellor's autumn Budget 2024, with DAERA's analysis showing that half of farms, accounting for a staggering 80% of farmland in Northern Ireland, could be affected. Let me be clear: that is almost certainly an underestimate. With average land values rising from £15,000 per acre to £21,000 per acre and to even higher levels in high-yield areas, many more farms will be caught in the inheritance tax net. It is not just a technical adjustment in a tax code; it is a direct attack on the viability of family farms in Northern Ireland. Those farms form the backbone of our agriculture sector, rural communities and local food security. If the changes are not reversed, we risk forcing the next generation off the land, accelerating the decline of family farming, handing even more power to large agribusinesses and speculative investors and ending food security for good. The Executive must do more than simply acknowledge the crisis: they must act. That means actively lobbying the British Government ahead of the spring statement to secure the urgent reversal of those damaging changes. Let me be clear: words without action are like wheels without traction. It is how you vote that counts, not the likes that you accrue. When the official Opposition brought the issue before Westminster, only six of our MPs recorded a vote — six. That is an absolute insult to every farming family in Northern Ireland. Let us be honest about what happened. Sinn Féin, to be fair, true to its abstention policy, did not vote: that was no surprise. The SDLP, sadly, did not vote. Revealingly, the Alliance Party, whose MP is from Lagan Valley, did not record a vote. The parties failed to show up. When push came to shove, they all had the chance to stand up for farming families in Northern Ireland —.

Absolutely, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Yes, I will.

I absolutely am. What happens in each of the legislatures, whether it is Westminster, Edinburgh or Cardiff, is important when we talk about the topic at hand. I was talking about a vote on the inheritance tax. They are intrinsically linked, so I thank the Member for that. Family farmers need more than press releases and social media posts; they need every legislative and political tool at their disposal. That means physically showing up in the voting Lobbies where it counts. If we are serious about protecting the future of family farms in Northern Ireland, we must move beyond word salad signalling into tangible and meaningful action. That starts with demanding an urgent reversal of the inheritance tax changes, fighting for fair funding and protection for our farmers and standing up here, in Holyrood, in the Welsh Assembly and, more important, in Westminster to ensure that the next generation of Northern Ireland family farmers has a future. We need to send a clear message. I heard the Member for South Antrim talk about living in people's heads. I will live on the family farms of Northern Ireland if that is what is needed to protect them. I will not be living in anybody's head, but I will hold to account those with responsibility for tackling this at its core in Westminster with the Labour Government, who brought in the changes that could see the end of food security across the UK and inflict the greatest harm on family farms across Northern Ireland. Their future is our future. We will not stand idly by while they are put at risk.

751 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:00 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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