Roads across Northern Ireland are set for major traffic disruption on Saturday with thousands of tractors set to take part in processions to oppose inheritance tax changes for farms.
The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) is organising seven separate tractor runs, with two in Co Down and one in each of the north’s five other counties.
All will start at 2pm, with applications to the Parades Commission stating that up to 400 tractors are expected to take part in each run.
The processions are being held to protest the British government’s proposed changes to agricultural property relief (APR), which limits the inheritance tax that farmers and landowners must pay when passing farmland on to heirs by up to 100%.
The controversial government plans, announced in the Budget last October, would see inheritance tax imposed on farms worth more than £1m, with a 20% rate on assets above that threshold.
It has been warned that around half of all farms in the north could be impacted by the changes, which the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves said are needed to help plug a £22bn hole in public finances left by the previous Conservative government.
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Stormont’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs has found around half of all farms in Northern Ireland could be impacted, accounting for around 80% of all farmed land.
The UFU has warned that the tax changes will “destroy our agri-food industry, everything we have built up over decades”, and said Saturday’s rallies are “simply the next step, with more action to follow”.
The tractor runs are part of a UK-wide ‘day of action’ that will see similar rallies held in England, Scotland and Wales, organised by the National Farmers Union (NFU), NFU Scotland and NFU Cymru.
Tractor protests over the tax changes have already taken place in cities including London, Oxford and Reading.
The UFU has produced maps to show the routes for each of Saturday’s processions in Northern Ireland, the registrations for which begin at 12.30pm.
In Co Down, both processions will depart from the Eikon Centre at Balmoral Park outside Lisburn, with one making its way along towards Carryduff, then on to Saintfield Livestock Market.
The other will go through Dromore, then on to Banbridge and finishing at the Boulevard.
In Co Antrim, the route will be around Ballymena, starting and finishing at the town’s livestock market at Woodside Road, moving through the town centre and taking in Ahoghill.
In Co Armagh, the procession will start at Armagh’s Formation Works at Edenaveys Road and head towards Markethill before going north to Richhill and back towards Armagh.
The Co Derry run starts and ends at the former Lisahally Livestock Market site at Strathfoyle, moving through Derry city’s Waterside area and crossing the Craigavon Bridge, before moving up through the Cityside and back across the Foyle Bridge.
Omagh is where the Co Tyrone run will take place, starting and finishing at the town’s auction mart at Gillygooley Road, and taking in a route that passes Omagh Hospital at Donaghanie Road.
In Co Fermanagh, the tractors will depart Enniskillen Mart at Old Tempo Road, and take in a loop of the town through Drumcoo and back south past Forthill Park before returning to the starting point.
UFU president William Irvine warned that Sir Keir Starmer’s government must “take a long hard look at what they are on the brink of doing and fully grasp the consequences of what the changes to APR and BPR (business property relief) will do, not only to UK farming, but to UK society”.
He added: “This only stops when changes are made that uphold our proud farming legacy and the family farm structure that defines us.”
Among those backing the protests are DUP MP for Upper Bann, Carla Lockhart, who said: “The so-called ‘family farm tax’ represents an existential threat to the future of family farms across Northern Ireland and indeed the whole of the UK.
“These changes, if implemented, will devastate farming families who are already facing enormous pressures.”
