A recent survey shows that just over 40% of Gloucestershire’s farms could go out of business in the next five years, rising to just over 60% by 2035. This is due to the impact of the government’s changes to inheritance tax.
The new data is based on 100 Gloucestershire farmers, part of a larger study involving 2,000 British farms, and commissioned by finance and mortgage advisory firm Ashbridge Partners.
There are 3,058 commercial farm holdings in Gloucestershire, with 224,262 hectares of land being farmed in the county – 74% of Gloucestershire’s total land area.
Nearly one in 10 farmers in Gloucestershire say they will face an IHT bill of over £1 million due to the inheritance tax hike, with 31% expecting to pay over £500,000.