Labour's family farm tax needs a 'complete rethink', a councillor has said.

Rutland County Council chairman Andrew Brown (Ind), who is a farmer himself, claims to approve of the family farm tax 'on principle' as a means of stopping wealthy people from buying land to avoid higher inheritance taxes, but acknowledges the scheme has 'backfired spectacularly'.

"It's been a very challenging year for farmers, and this tax is another nail in the coffin for small family farms," councillor Brown said.

"It has put a huge amount of pressure on family businesses unnecessarily. Even as it stands, the very wealthy people who are buying land for inheritance tax reasons will continue to do so because it's still a good deal for them. It's half the rate of normal tax."

Councillor Brown's comments follow recent calls for Labour's Agricultural Property Relief (APR) reforms, commonly known as the family farm tax, to be scrapped at the Autumn Budget, due in October.

First announced in 2024, the policy saw tax relief lowered on farm values exceeding £1 million, from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. The relief threshold was later raised to £2.5 million following substantial backlash.

After taking power, Prime Minister Andy Burnham indicated he would reconsider the scheme, prompting Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Victoria Atkins (Con) to write an open letter in August, imploring him to "go further" by fully reversing the policy.

Backed by Rutland and Stamford MP Alicia Kearns (Con), Mrs Atkins' letter was later echoed by other political figures, including former Labour home secretary Lord Blunkett, who called the tax reform "a mistake".

While councillor Brown is sympathetic to the scheme's intentions, he has taken issue with its application.

He said: "The Government should have implement the threshold much higher, and applied the tax in a banded way like they do with income. Right now it's a completely unnecessary burden on small businesses, which are the backbone of British agriculture.

"I don't think it will deliver a lot of money into the Treasury, but it will cause a lot of people a lot of unnecessary stress."

In August, Mr Burnham published a letter to farmers in the agricultural news outlet Farmers Weekly, reaffirming his support for the British farming industry with a £65 million financial package to help farmers through the periods of summer drought. However, according to councillor Brown, more financial assistance is required to offset the shortfall in farming support created when Britain left the European Union.

He continued: "When we were members of the EU, in round figures, English farmers would receive about £100 an acre in support payments. That has been decreasing incrementally every year. This year it was £1 an acre, next year it will be zero.

"For the other countries in the United Kingdom, agriculture is a devolved power, so they still get the equivalent of £100 an acre. That means we don't even have a level playing field in our own country.

"It's very difficult for us to compete, but the lack of support also undermines our self sufficiency and our ability to feed ourselves. In the dangerous world we now find ourselves in, that is a crazy policy.

"We should be incentivising farmers to grow more food, whilst working alongside the environment. There's a balance."