Wells and Shepton farmers face tax plea from MP

By Laura Linham 3rd Apr 2026

Local News by Laura Linham 3rd Apr 2026

Farmers in Wells and Shepton Mallet are being warned they still face a damaging tax blow unless the Government scraps planned inheritance tax changes before they come into force on Sunday, 6 April 2026.

Tessa Munt, MP for Wells and Mendip Hills, is urging ministers to ditch what opponents call the Family Farm Tax in full, saying too many family-run farms across her rural constituency will still be hit under the new rules.

The warning comes with less than a week to go before changes to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief take effect. While the threshold for 100 per cent relief was raised to £2.5 million last year after pressure from farmers and the Liberal Democrats, Munt said that still leaves many local farms exposed to effective tax rates of 20 per cent on assets above the limit.

For an area like Wells and Mendip Hills, where farming remains a huge part of the local economy and landscape, the row is likely to strike a nerve. Small family farms play a major role in communities across villages and market towns, including around Wells and Shepton Mallet, and campaigners fear further pressure could make it even harder for them to survive.

Munt said the Government had to go further if it wanted to protect the future of farming in the constituency.

She said: "We desperately need to help the farming community. Small farms are a vital part of our rural communities and should be protected.

"While I welcome the changes the Government made to the inheritance tax last year, they must go further. Small farms will simply struggle to continue into the future if the Government clobber them with this tax."

The MP also said ministers should be backing British farming more strongly in future trade deals and treating food production as a matter of national security.

She said: "Instead, the Government should be doing all they can to support our farmers, including protection in future trade deals with other countries.

"Food security is a national security risk. Currently we only produce 55% of our food, we must produce more and this will only come from significantly greater Government protections and investment."

The intervention puts fresh focus on the pressure facing rural communities across Somerset. In Wells and around Shepton Mallet, where agriculture remains deeply tied to local jobs, family businesses and the wider countryside, any extra tax burden on inherited farms is likely to be watched closely.

With the deadline now just days away, Munt is making clear she believes the current changes still do not go far enough. For farming families in Wells and Shepton Mallet, the message is stark: without further action from ministers, the fight over the Family Farm Tax is far from over.