Farmers are in “real distress” over the fate of their businesses after the government’s tax hike on farms was announced in the Budget.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the government would cut inheritance tax relief for farmers, as part of the 2024 Budget.

The Oxfordshire chairman for the National Farming Union (NFU) Alex Nelms said the changes announced in the Budget would be “a huge blow for Oxfordshire farming families”.

He said: “Since the Budget, we have heard from farmers in real distress about the future and who fear they will lose their businesses.

“The changes announced are a huge blow for Oxfordshire farming families, those across the region and beyond and the vast majority who will bear the brunt of this family farm tax aren’t wealthy people with huge cash reserves hidden away.

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“They are families that have often spent generations building up their farm businesses to provide food for the nation and care for the environment, often on very tight profit margins.

“Our farms have struggled through multiple challenges, and many are overwhelmed with the lowest margins imaginable, with the cost of rearing livestock and growing crops skyrocketing and their businesses have been hit by increasingly extreme weather conditions.

“Put simply, farmers have nothing left to give.

“The NFU continues to put farmers’ grave concerns firmly in front of our politicians from all political parties and it is essential that those in Parliament understand the impact this will have on our industry and food security.”

William Timbury, who is the son of a farming family, said that the new inheritance tax on farmers will have a detrimental impact on farmers' mental health.

He said: "Mental health within the farming community is at breaking point and has been for years."

"Farming is an inherently lonely job, long hours, heavily reliant on weather, countless rules and regulations, all to barely break even.

"Despite knowing this, government have introduced the new inheritance tax which is simply unsuitable for many farmers.

"Unsurprisingly and sadly, this has already had detrimental effects on farmers mental health, as several farmers have already taken their own lives as a result of the budget.

"This simply needs to change now or the situation will go from bad to worse. 

"As a farmers son who is immensely proud of the farming community, I urge you to please speak to someone if you're struggling. We need to stick together in times like these."

(Image: Contributed) Olly Glover, Liberal Democrat MP for Didcot and Wantage, has called for the inheritance tax hike to be reversed, saying it could ring the “death knell” for family farms in the Didcot and Wantage area.

He said: “The government must scrap this disastrous ‘tractor tax’ immediately or risk local family farms in Didcot and Wantage going out of business.

“For years, our local farmers, who farm almost 32,000 hectares of land in my constituency, have been forced to endure botched trade deals and cuts to their incomes due to the Conservative Party’s shameful neglect of rural communities.

“The new government’s tax hike will come yet another hammer blow for valued local food producers.”

He also urged the government to take up Liberal Democrats proposal to give farmers an extra £1 billion a year in support.

The government has previously said that 27 per cent of farms will be affected by the changes, which would amount to 61 farms in Didcot and Wantage.

The NFU will hold a mass lobby of MPs in parliament to put pressure on the government to reverse the inheritance tax hike on farmers on Tuesday, November 19.