Devastated Kent farmers say a “bombshell” new inheritance tax means their families will have to sell off land to stump up “crazy” amounts of money.

They fear the controversial measures announced in this week’s Budget will leave their businesses unviable and will also hit the county’s local food supply.

Martin Twyman, 84, whose farm has been passed down through the generations over almost 100 years, told KentOnline his family would face a tax bill of almost £2 million.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves insists the changes are “fair and proportionate” and the revenue raised will go towards funding the NHS - but Mr Twyman is “deeply worried” about the future.

The owner of HW Twyman Farm at Littlebourne, near Canterbury, said: “I would love my family to continue the business that my father started - and for the next generation and their children.

“But the reality is my family could be left with a huge tax bill which would mean having to sell off lots of land - and then it would make it unviable.”

Mr Twyman and his brother Stephen inherited the business from their father, Harry, who started with a small market garden in the 1930s. The family have been working the land and expanding the business since the late 1950s.

Today, together with Stephen and daughter, Tracy they grow wheat and barley, as well as apples, potatoes and blackcurrants.

Mr Twyman said: “What we are talking about is growing our own food in the UK, which is surely a basic need, but now faces this new threat.”

Previously, farmland and associated buildings had benefitted from ‘agricultural property relief’.

However, following the Budget, from April 2026, anyone inheriting working farmland and its buildings will have to pay 20% tax on valuations over £1 million.

With farmland alone worth about £10,000 an acre, any estate of over just 100 acres looks set to be liable.

The Chancellor says only 27% of farms across the country will be affected.

But there are concerns smaller farms could be dragged in when buildings like farmhouses and barns are taken into account.

The figures look stark for Mr Twyman’s family as the tax liability on his 900-acre farm could be as high as £2 million.

“That’s a crazy amount of money for our descendants to find and will mean having to sell vast amounts of land which will then make the farm unviable,” he said.

“Farmers have had it tough enough with the increasing regulation and red tape and now this bombshell.”

Kim Gower, who owns Blandred Farm in Folkestone, is equally aghast and fears the new inheritance tax could force the family to sell off a fifth of their land.

“Agricultural land has been traditionally exempt from inheritance tax to avoid the necessity of selling it on the death of the owner to cover that bill,” she said.

“It often takes several generations to build up a farm because land and buildings are so expensive.

“On our family farm, it has taken 100 years to grow it from a small dairy farm to the larger arable farm we have today.

“Even the smallest farms will be unlikely to fall under the £1 million threshold set by the Chancellor.

“It has taken us the last 30 years to increase the farmland by a fifth. We also still have a mortgage on this land.

“For us, it effectively means that we will have to sell a fifth of our land to pay the inheritance tax, wiping out three decades of work and investment.”

The Budget announcement has seen a backlash from high-profile personalities with interests in farming and the countryside.

Writing on X, Jeremy Clarkson, whose hit Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm has given a unique insight into the challenges of farming, said farmers have been “shafted”.

Meanwhile, TV property guru Kirstie Allsopp used an expletive to describe the actions of the Chancellor.

She added: “She has destroyed their ability to pass farms onto their children and broken the future of our great estates.

“It is an appalling decision and shows the government has zero understanding of what matters to rural voters.”

In the lead-up to the Budget, the National Union of Farmers and the Country Land Business Association (CLA) had urged the Chancellor to leave the current agricultural and business property relief alone, after hearing it could be under threat.

In a letter to Rachel Reeves, they warned of a threat to food security if farmers were hit with inheritance tax.

CLA president Victoria Vyvyan said the government had made repeated assurances to the farming industry over the last 12 months that it would not tamper with inheritance tax reliefs

“We needed to raise money in the Budget and we know that there are a lot of landowners who are very wealthy…”

“The decision to now rip the rug from under farmers is nothing short of a betrayal,” she said.

“This puts dynamite beneath the livelihoods of British farming and flies in the face of growth and investment.”

But the Chancellor has said 73% of farms and agricultural property will not be affected at all.

“So, this does protect smaller farms,” she said, “27% will be affected, but with a discount on inheritance tax of 20% compared to 40% that others pay.

“We needed to raise money in the Budget and we know that there are a lot of landowners who are very wealthy, some who buy land to avoid paying inheritance tax because previously there was no inheritance tax.

“These are fair and proportionate changes so that anyone with land can pass on above the normal inheritance tax allowances.”

The measures have also been defended by Paul Johnson, director of the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies.

“This affects a very small number of farms each year. [Farmers] are still going to be treated better than anyone else in terms of inheritance tax,” he said.

Farmers could still transfer land to younger generations and not pay inheritance tax if this is done seven years before they die.