Reeves set for inheritance raid on wealthy landowners such as James Dyson

Rachel Reeves is set to hit aristocrats and other wealthy property owners with a £1 billion inheritance tax raid in her upcoming Budget.

The chancellor will deliver Labour’s first Budget on Wednesday 30th October, warning that it will involve “difficult decisions” on tax, spending and benefits.

She is expected to orchestrate a £1 billion inheritance tax raid in the plans targeting millionaire City financiers, aristocrats and celebrities.

Reforms to business relief, a loophole which allows the rich to halve their inheritance tax bills, is believed to be in the offing, while agricultural property relief (APR), which is designed to help farmers pass land on but has increasingly been used by the wealthy to avoid inheritance tax, will also be looked at.

Insiders say the plans will hit vacuum cleaner entrepreneur James Dyson, who is reputed to own 36,000 acres of farmland in Lincolnshire and Somerset.

The Brexiteer, who moved his company’s headquarters out of the UK following the decision to leave the European Union, has put a lot of his wealth into property, a former Conservative cabinet minister who was tipped off about the raid said.

“He thought we were doing a lousy job, so I would like to be a fly on his wall when he hears about the budget.”

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.