NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “The fact that the government’s own levy board has now come to the same conclusion as the NFU, that 75% of commercial farm businesses could be affected by this policy – more than 42,000 farms – speaks volumes.
“It could not be clearer that the data behind this abhorrent family farm tax is wrong and that the Treasury has drastically underestimated the scale of the impact on British farming and food.”
AHDB has calculated 42,204 out of 54,938 farming businesses (76.8%) in England and Scotland that are 50 hectares (124 acres) or larger will be affected.
The study looks at average balance sheet data mainly sourced from Defra, the Farm Business Survey and the Scottish Government.
More than half of those affected are involved in cereals or general cropping production as their main enterprise, with the rest predominantly livestock producers or mixed farming operations.
The NFU has repeatedly warned of the risk the changes to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief pose to family farms throughout its Stop the Family Farm Tax campaign, with the majority of farms not earning enough money to pay the potential inheritance bill without selling off some of their land or business.
