Why Labour’s attack on rural Britain may mean £2.6bn loss

Labour’s devastating assault on Britain’s sporting estates could spectacularly backfire, with a new report revealing the Government’s inheritance tax raid may cost the Treasury up to £1.26bn more than it raises.

The damning CBI Economics analysis exposes how Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s attack on agricultural property relief could trigger a £2.6bn shortfall in income tax and other levies over five years – dwarfing the £1.38bn the Government hopes to extract from rural communities.

From April, family farms and sporting estates worth over £1m will face a punitive 20% inheritance tax after generations of protection. The policy threatens to destroy centuries-old estates that provide rural employment across Britain.

The countryside has united in opposition, with protests erupting nationwide since Labour’s Autumn Budget assault on rural Britain. Many shooting estates face an impossible choice: sell off land that has supported game management for generations or burden future owners with crippling tax bills.

National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw warned the Treasury faces “major cuts to investment and significant job losses” at a time when rural communities need support.

The Countryside Alliance’s Mo Metcalf-Fisher condemned the changes as “foolish and irreversible”, warning of “swift and far-reaching” damage to agriculture and rural sports.

The Government’s reassurances that most estates remain unaffected ring hollow as rural Britain prepares for the Labour Party’s ideological war on the countryside.