Updated on 7 February 2025
We’ve reviewed our popular farm succession health check in the light of the recent Budget to help you get an insight into what you need to do to protect your farming business in the future.
If you haven’t already spoken about this within the family, our specialist agriculture and estates team can help you to raise the subject and outline the surrounding key issues.
Without an up to date will or Power of Attorney, the effect of your death or incapacity could have significant consequences for your business. This is something that you don’t have to leave to chance – with the expertise of our nationally recognised Private Client team, precautions can be taken to safeguard the future of the business.
With the changes announced in the recent Budget, it is vital that you have a tax-efficient will in place, to make the best use of the available inheritance tax allowances. The new £1m allowances are not able to be transferred between spouses, so it is important to make sure your wills make the best use of the available allowance and ensure valuable tax relief is not lost.
A partnership agreement will ensure that your business is structured in the most efficient way. If you haven’t already got one in place, our friendly and experienced specialists at Lodders can help you to ensure that your partnership agreement sets out clearly the ownership of the assets in your farm business.
Unless you made your wills at the same time as your partnership agreement or considered the documents together, there is a good chance that they may not be complementary to each other. These can be amended to ensure that your wishes for the business’ future are accurately communicated.
Following the recent Budget, we recommend that you review any trusts that you have set up; they are also affected by the new rules, limiting claims for tax relief at 100% to £1 million from April 2026. Trusts are a commonly used estate planning tool, but the forthcoming change may mean you need to look at distributing some assets if any farmland or business assets held within the trust are close to or above £1m in value.
It is important that any diversification project fits in with your farming business. Without proper planning, certain diversification projects can have considerable tax consequences for your business.
If you are looking at a renewable energy project, you will need to consider how this might affect your estate and succession planning. You should also consider the implications of the new inheritance tax changes impact on any diversification projects.
It is important to review your will and estate planning if you have any land or buildings with development potential. Significant tax savings can be made if you undertake planning at an early stage of the development process.
If you have been approached, taking legal advice at an early stage can ensure that you get the best possible deal for your circumstances. The agriculture law team at Lodders are experienced in advising on development and outlining the best options for you.
If your land holdings are not registered at the Land Registry, you may wish to consider voluntary registration. This process can help identify any problems that could arise when considering any planning or transactions at a later date.
At Lodders, we understand how the countryside works. We have one of the largest and most experienced agriculture law teams in the region, offering expert advice on succession planning and other rural matters to help you protect the future of your farming business. Significant change is coming for farm businesses in April 2026, but with expert advice there is much you can do to plan ahead and mitigate the tax burden.
For a friendly and confidential conversation, please contact James Spreckley on 01789 206166 or via email, or John Rouse on 01789 206167 or via email.
You can also read more on succession planning for farmers in our advice piece here.
Contact usMost of James’ clients are involved in agriculture, whether as farming families, rural businesses or estates; and as well as dealing with property matters, he is often involved in their succession planning and partnership arrangements.