Tractor sales have dropped sine Rachel Reeves’s budget in October (Image: Getty)
Farmers have avoided buying tractors following inheritance tax raid, figures showed.
The said farmers no longer have the confidence to invest in their businesses because of Labour’s October Budget.
Orders for tractors were down 13% in 2024 compared to 2023, an analysis of Agricultural Engineers Association figures revealed.
Registrations were down 5% in the final three months of 2024 compared to a year earlier. This is the lowest in any year since 1998.
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Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins MP said: “Labour’s vindictive Family Farm Tax threatens the end of British farming as we know it.
“Many farmers – whose incomes can be as low as £20,000 per year – simply cannot afford Labour’s tax bills. Today, we are clearly seeing that the impact of Labour’s Budget has shattered confidence in the industry and the result is that farmers no longer feel able to invest in their businesses. For tractor registrations to be at the lowest point since the 1990s is alarming.
“This will have grave impacts on food supply and consumer prices. For those making and supplying agricultural machinery, this is more bad news – on top of Labour’s already hugely damaging jobs tax. This is a crisis made in Downing Street.”
Labour’s decision means that farm inheritance tax relief would be limited to £1million, meaning all assets above that threshold passed down to the next generation would be taxed.
There is a higher threshold of £3 million for couples passing on their farms.
The Daily Express’s Save Britain’s Family Farms crusade has demanded a U-turn.
A government spokeswoman said: “Our commitment to farmers remains steadfast.
“This Government will invest £5 billion into farming over the next two years, the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history. We are going further with reforms to boost profits for farmers by backing British produce and reforming planning rules on farms to support food production.
“Our reform to Agricultural and Business Property Relief will mean estates will pay a reduced effective inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than standard 40%, and payments can be spread over 10 years, interest-free. This is a fair and balanced approach, which fixes the public services we all rely on, affecting around 500 estates a year.”