The announcements on APR and BPR have clearly sent shockwaves through the farming community. From speaking to my farming clients, there is disappointment that, despite reassurances from the Government that they will be supported, the Budget did the opposite of this. It was anticipated that there would be an ‘attack’ on APR but not BPR as well. This is being portrayed as a ‘farmers tax’ but it will have a lasting impact on the wider business community.

In addition to the changes to APR/BPR, there were many other announcements which will impact on the farming sector, including:

The increases in employers NICs and the National Minimum Wage from April 2025 will greatly affect those farming businesses which are labour intensive and already have contract pricing agreed with, for example, a supermarket. In the agricultural sector, producers are largely price-takers which limits their ability to be able to recoup such increases. A renewed focus on automation and the potential use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) within businesses must be high up on their agenda.

The withdrawal of England’s delinked payments has been accelerated for 2025, which will leave an unexpected gap in farming cashflows. Further details can be found in our ‘More Budget news’ article. This comes at a time when many farming cash flows are already strained after the difficult weather conditions. The acceleration also comes at a time when anecdotally the Rural Payments Agency is being slow to process new grant applications and grant claims. There has been some recent positive news with the Farming Recovery Fund finally making payments in early November.

Further commentary in respect of the Budget can be found in our newsletter articles, which, once again, highlight the vital role we, as Chartered Accountants, will play in advising our farming and rural clients. Succession planning has never been so important.