Marketing Newscast

(Edited 25 February 2025)

The National Farmers Union (NFU) begins its annual conference tomorrow, and the growing row over the so-called ‘family farms tax’ is top of the agenda. The Government has introduced Inheritance Tax (IHT) at a rate of 20% for family farms (and for all family businesses) worth over £1m from April next year. Currently, Agricultural Property Relief exempts farms from IHT. In a keynote speech, NFU President President Tom Bradshaw will accuse the Government of breaking promises with the “morally wrong” tax announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ October Budget, and urge Ministers to “do the right thing” by reversing the policy. Advance briefing of his speech reveals he will also criticise the “botched” agricultural transition from EU-era subsidies and blame bad policy, geopolitics and “unprecedented weather” for leaving some sectors of the industry facing their worst cashflow crisis for generations. “Many farmers are genuinely worried about how they’ll make it to the end of 2025,” he will warn, while pledging that countrywide protests against the tax will continue: “We will not go away, we will not stop, we will not give in. We will fight the family farm tax until ministers do the right thing. Then we can move on. Because it’s not like producing the nation’s food has gotten any easier in the last 12 months. I have never seen such a crisis of confidence in our industry,” he will say. Environment Secretary Steve Reed is also set to address the conference in attempt to improve relationships with the sector. He is expected to announce a series measure to boost profits for farmers, among them new requirements for government catering contracts to back British produce, a multimillion-pound investment in technology, extending the seasonal worker visa programme, strengthening controls on animal disease, and protecting farmers in trade deals. Meanwhile, business lobby group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) will back farmers at their conference: CBI Director General Rain Newton-Smith will say in a speech that the £500m IHT tax raid on agriculture and family-run businesses has shattered confidence and damaged the economy, and made farmers “fearful” that they will not be able to “pass livelihoods on to future generations.” She will add that the tax raid poses a risk to Britain’s domestic food supply and to the economy. “Farming is a vital part of the everyday economy – the true job creators and community builders that prop up our whole economy. You can’t get growth unless you start by backing sectors like this. As any economist will tell you, that starts from investment. But to get that flowing, what you need is confidence,” she will say.

Ofgem has unveiled the new energy price cap for England, Scotland and Wales this morning – and it is going up around 6.4%, from £1,738 per year to £1,849 from 1st April, some 50% more than dual-fuel customers were paying before the start of the Ukraine war three years’ ago. Before February 2022, the price cap was £1,216 per year for a typical household, £633 lower than the cap announced today.

Mark Carney’s investment company, Brookfield, has bought National Grid’s renewables business, which includes onshore wind, solar and battery plants in the US. Brookfield, a Canada-based asset manager, is expected to complete the $1.7bn (£1.3bn) takeover by the end of September. Carney, a former Bank of England Governor is running to succeed Justin Trudeau as the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party next month, ahead of the next Canadian general election, probably in October. The National Grid, a FTSE 100 company, is selling off parts of its energy portfolio to focus on energy infrastructure.

Business and Trade Minister Sarah Jones is insisting that BMW has not scrapped plans to invest £600m in an overhaul of its Oxford Mini factory, as reported here yesterday, but has merely delayed the production of two electric Minis, and remains committed to its investment in the UK.

7,000 civil servants could be moving into a new 5.5 acre office site in Manchester, which has been granted planning permission. It is proposed the complex will bring together a range of government departments but with a focus on technology.

Chemring is reportedly the subject of a takeover offer from private equity firm Bain Capital. Sky News reports that the FTSE250 defence group is in receipt of an offer of 390p a share, a modest premium to the 356p at which the stock was trading at open this morning. Chemring employs roughly 2,700 people, according to its most recent results announcement published in mid-December.

Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher is leaving "by mutual agreement" after just 19 months in the job. the helm. The FTSE 100 consumer goods giant is replacing him with Fernando Fernandez, who has been the company's CFO since January 2024. He, in turn, is to be replaced ion 1^st March by Srinivas Phatak, currently Unilever's deputy CFO.