Suffolk bishop fears for farmers after 'devastating' Budget

The Rt Rev Martin Seeley, the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, is among a growing number who fear for the mental health of farmers in the county after Labour's bombshell Budget on October 30.

Farmers have been left distraught after being told that the full Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) on farm inheritance tax will only apply to the first £1m and thereafter to 50% of the value of farm businesses.

The change - due to take effect in 2026 - has ended decades of relatively benign conditions for farmers which enabled family farms to be passed from one generation to the next without worrying about inheritance tax.

Bishop Martin at Trinity Park - home of the Suffolk Show (Image: Charlotte Bond) Bishop Martin - whose inbox has been stacked full of messages from worried farmers - has arranged to meet with a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) minister in the House of Lords in the coming weeks to discuss his concerns.

"My take on this is they have just done their sums wrong and they have misunderstood what the value of an average farm is and placed this inheritance tax burden on family farms," he said.

"They then say they are trying to support and preserve family farms - but the impact of this is the opposite.

"The average family farm in Suffolk of 400 acres is worth about £5m which places a huge tax burden if you have not gone through the process of transferring the farm to your children early enough and even if you have there's no guarantee - people don't necessarily die in order."

He condemned the Budget change. "It seems the most extraordinary and unnecessary move in order to secure more income when the whole farming industry depends on being able to pass on the farms intact from generation to generation."

Because of the cost, he feared that for some farmers "that's the end of it - you sell the farm."

Bishop Martin - who is this year's president of the Suffolk Agricultural Association - said he understood their concerns and did not feel their concerns were unfounded.

"The farmers are not over-reacting at all. In fact, in many ways there's this extraordinary ability that farmers have to adapt," he said.

"I have heard farmers say we just have to get on with it but actually others of us need to do all we can to reverse this decision.

"I think it's having a very significant mental health impact and I see that from the increase in calls that (his farm chaplain) Graham Miles is getting and it flies in the face of any claim the government may make that food security is vitally important and the support of our farmers and family farms is vitally important because this just undercuts it.

The sector has also been hit by other changes in the Budget, including a big rise in Employers' National Insurance payments, a big cut in their subsidy payments and a rise in the minimum wage.

"To do that in combination with all the other things is just a devastating blow - particularly to the average and smaller sized family farm.

"I do think somebody in the Treasury has just sat down and said: 'Here's somewhere we could get some money' without any knowledge of what's involved in the farming business. They just don't understand. It's the London view of farms. We see it over and over again.

"I think what's unfortunate is it looked as if we had ministers who did understand the situation of farmers I suspect they have been overridden by the Treasury.

"All the signals before were this was not going to happen - particularly the APR."

The government line that 73% of family farms will not be affected was based on erroneous data, he said, and there were other ways to raise the money they need. "It just seems to me such a miscalculated action." 

The bishop - who speaks regularly in the House of Lords on behalf of farmers - said he would be telling the DEFRA minister that the government's actions do not match their supportive words.

"I have had more correspondence about this than I have had about anything else," he added.

Drinkstone farmer Bill Baker - who chairman of the Suffolk Agricultural Association which runs the Suffolk Show - said his organisation is apolitical but at the latest Suffolk Show committee meeting on Monday he had put out a plea to members to watch out for each others' mental health.

Bill Baker, chairman of the SAA (Image: Charlotte Bond) Farmers were "a community which is feeling about as desperate as at any time I have known in my life", he said. They were feeling anxiety and despair as a result of the Budget, fearing that all they have worked and strived for will come to naught.

"I know there are quite a lot of people in a fragile state talking to the charities YANA (You Are Not Alone) and Farm Community Network (FCN) and the medical profession," he said. "It worries me this is the straw that breaks the camel's back."

He added: "We as a community are good at looking out for each other and I implore everybody to keep an eye on neighbours, friends and colleagues for any signs that concern them."

Farmers were feeling like they have been victimised, he said. "There's a lot of anger, a lot of frustration and a lot of upset and hurt," he added.

"People questioning past decisions they have made, people questioning what they do and the older generation feeling the next generation could be suffering a severe setback."