Farmers in South Cambridgeshire have raised concerns about the impact of the 'family farm tax' with MP Pippa Heylings.

The government's budget cut the levels of inheritance tax relief for farmers, which Ms Heylings says could "ring the death knell" for family farms in her constituency.

According to the government, 27 per cent of farms will be affected by the changes. There are 299 farms in South Cambs - which means 81 would likely be impacted by the tax.

Ms Heylings discussed the potential impact of the tax with farmer David Walston of Thriplow Farms, who has called the tax "wrong-headed".

"Family farmers across South Cambridgeshire have already been failed by a Conservative party that didn’t care about them - they can’t now be let down by a Labour government that doesn’t listen or understand them," Ms Heylings said.

"I am calling on the Government to think again about the family farm tax that would be disastrous for our local farmers.

"It’s a wrong-headed approach especially in areas like South Cambridgeshire - suffering inflated land values - where it will affect farmers trying to make a living off the land, put food on our plates, restore nature and combat climate change.

"British farmers are already battling with sky-high energy bills and botched overseas trade deals; and this hike will only make things much worse.

"I am urging the government to change course."

Ms Heylings has also called on the government to urgently review plans to accelerate the phase out of direct payments to farmers under the basic payments scheme.

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She added: "By failing to do so, we are not giving farmers a fighting chance of sustainably and profitably feeding the nation and protecting our natural environment."

The government has explained that the changes were made to better target the reliefs to make them fairer - protecting small family farms.

A statement on the government website explains: "It is not fair for a very small number of claimants each year to claim such a significant amount of relief, when this money could better be used to fund our public services."