An East Hampshire poultry farmer believes the Budget will only add to the challenges that UK farmers are currently facing.

Simon Bridger owns and runs Ashford Farm at Steep, just outside Petersfield, with his wife Alexandra and their family.

He was one of thousands of farmers to attend a protest in London on November 19, against the Labour Government’s Budget.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, announced that from April 2026, inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1 million, will now have to pay 20 per cent inheritance tax.

“I just think they haven't got hold of this right,” Simon said.

“In my mind, where's the farm security? That's the biggest problem we're worried about. We need our farmers to produce food and the last thing they want is land stripped away from them.

“The Government is taking subsidies away and we’re going to lose more. If we're knocking the feet out of farmers in our own country, you're not going to have any farmers!”

Among Simon’s concerns is the threat to self-efficiency, imported meats, climate change, job losses, decrease in willing investors, farms being taken over by the wrong people and more.

Prior to the protest, National Farmers’ Union (NFU) members gathered near Parliament, Simon was one of them.

At the mass lobby, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “This is a policy that will rip the heart out of Britain’s family farms, it must be halted and considered properly.

“It is full of let-downs for our vital sector; accelerated BPS reductions, double cab pick-up taxes, new taxes on fertilisers. The irony is that this asset wealth will never become actual wealth, unless our farms are broken up.”

Despite the outcry from farmers, the Government has stated it will not make any amendments and believes a “vast majority” will not be affected.