The leader of Hampshire County Council will write to the government to outline concerns and call for a U-turn on changes to the inheritance tax for farmers.

During a meeting of the full council on Thursday, November 28, David Drew and Edward Heron tabled a motion calling on the government to reconsider the decision to change rules so farmers pay inheritance tax on properties and land worth more than £1 million.

Council leader Nick Adams-King said: "This tax shows how much Labour doesn't know or care about farming and our countryside communities here in Hampshire.

"Putting farming families, who have worked the land in Hampshire for centuries in some cases, under so much pressure when they are already struggling is entirely wrong and will have consequences for our food security and our rural economy when farmers give up.

Supporting the motion, Cllr Juliet Henderson said farmers provide food and do "invaluable" work with nature conservation, adding: "We owe it to our farmers to support them."

Cllr Stephen Reid said that he understands what the government is trying to do. It wants to catch the "fat cats" who have been buying agricultural land to pass on to the next generation and avoid paying inheritance tax.

READ MORE: How MPs in Hampshire voted on the assisted dying bill

However, he added, "If you do it clumsily, and they have, you end up getting the thin cat, and that's what all the complaints are about.

"Farmers who are passing land down through the generations, not huge farmers, farmers now feel that their legacy is threatened, that the future of their businesses is threatened, that what they had planned to do in passing on their farm to their sons and daughters is now not going to be possible."

Cllr Patricia Stallard echoed the views of one of his residents, a 70-year-old farmer whose farm has been in his family for more than 100 years. Now, with the inheritance tax, he fears his farm and all his life's work will be destroyed.

The farmer's letter said: "I drew up my will so that my two sons would be able to continue and develop the business. Rachel Reeves has destroyed all that planning. I thought I had secured a future for my sons and families, but this inheritance tax has been paid to all.

"I am 70 years old but will need to die in the next year, or everything I have worked for, all my life will be destroyed. My family has farmed and nurtured the land for over 100 years, but I can't see any future in farming."

For her part, Cllr Kristy North said the Labour government is "hitting our farmers, our food supply, our green fields and our rural way of life".

Cllr North, who met farmers Angus and Andrea, described the "sheer horror" for elderly farmers in their 80s and 90s who faced "the most awful choice".

She said: "They gamble whether they will live for another seven years or whether, at the end of April next year, they take their own life because they feel it's the only way that their farm can stay in their family.

"Labour must wake up and do something to reverse this ill-thought-out assault on family farms and on the countryside."

Green Party councillor Malcolm Wallace said the government needs to check the plan's ability to distinguish between speculators and real farmers.

Cllr Wallace said: "The government was right to identify the loophole that enables very wealthy people to put money into farmland to avoid taxes being exploited, and that loophole needs to be addressed.

"It's not good for real farmers if the land is bought up by people who are not interested in farming and are just using it to avoid paying tax. However, the government needs to have another look at what it plans to do and be able to make a clear distinction between people speculating about buying land and actual family farms."

He added that since figures on the number of farmers are controversial, with the government saying that 500 farmers would be impacted yearly but Treasury data claiming that 28 per cent would be affected, it is clear the government has "mud in their fingers," which also needs another look.

He said: "The Treasury claimed 28 per cent of farmers would be affected by the new inheritance tax, but analysis by the NFU of data produced by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs suggested up to two-thirds of farms could be impacted by the tax."

The motion is also aiming to send an invitation to farmers to sign the National Farmers Union petition.