'NO IHT' message echoes from Royal Welsh Winter Fair

(Photo: NFU Cymru)

A striking display at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair has sent an unmistakable warning to Westminster, as NFU Cymru rallied opposition to the UK government’s inheritance tax reforms on the eve of the budget.

More than 400 visitors took part in the visual protest on Tuesday (25 November), forming a large-scale human mosaic spelling out ‘NO IHT’.

Timed deliberately a day before the chancellor’s statement, the display reflected deepening anger in rural Wales over planned changes to inheritance tax reliefs.

The installation is the latest step in a year-long campaign by the union following last year’s shock proposals to amend agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR).

With the autumn budget imminent, NFU Cymru is urging the UK government to adopt recommendations from the cross-party Welsh Affairs Committee, which has called for the reforms to be paused while a full impact assessment is carried out.

NFU Cymru President Aled Jones said the demonstration amounted to a clear message from rural communities. He described it as “an unequivocal statement from rural Wales – ‘The UK government’s reforms to inheritance tax reliefs are going to be devastating for Welsh family farming businesses and the prosperity of our rural areas’.”

He warned that more than a year after the chancellor’s announcement, the union is “still hearing of families whose lives will be turned upside down by these changes,” adding that at a time of bereavement, families could also face dismantling their businesses to meet an unexpected tax bill.

Jones said frustration was growing as evidence from tax specialists, the supply chain and parliamentary committees continued to point towards severe consequences for Welsh farming.

He said it was “extremely troubling” that government “can continue with these changes despite such a resounding volume of concern and worry,” insisting that “We must see a pause to the family farm tax until those impacts are properly accounted for.”

The Welsh Affairs Committee’s recent report, published on 12 November, warned that valuation-based assessments offer only limited insight into how many farms could exceed the £1 million threshold.

Without access to detailed succession plans and ownership structures, the committee said, such estimates “lack precision and risk being misleading.”

The push for a rethink extends beyond Wales, with more than 100 businesses, retailers and trade bodies across the food and farming supply chain writing to the Prime Minister urging him to reconsider the planned reforms.

As rural Wales awaits the chancellor’s autumn budget announcement, NFU Cymru says the message from Llanelwedd could not be clearer.