'I work in a posh area with rich footballers and celebs... and I'm being punished for it'

For Carolyn Richardson and her sister Angela Sidebottom there was never any doubt about their future career. Their dad had been a lifelong farmer, as had his dad. Now in their 50s, they have been working their family's land in Cheshire for decades.

Carolyn, 53, now runs Turner House Farm in Mottram St Andrew, a village popular with footballers and celebrities and part of Cheshire's so-called 'Golden Triangle.' Angela oversees nearby Brook House Farm.

They have a 320 head of cattle and around 2,000 ewes across both farms. Sadly, their dad Alan Slater died in 1999.

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And when she dies, their mum Stella, now 80, wants to pass on the farms to them, as recognition of their hard work over the years, and to give them a steady livelihood.

But a detail in the budget left Stella feeling 'sick.' The new Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an end to inheritance tax exemption for some farms. From April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an effective inheritance tax rate of 20 percent - half the usual rate of 40pc.

The move has been branded "disastrous" by the National Farmers' Union (NFU), with some farmers warning it would decimate the countryside. A huge protest is taking place at parliament on Tuesday with tens of thousands of farmers potentially attending.

There are also fears that some elderly landowners may not have time to make use of existing rules to skip inheritance tax by passing on an asset seven years before death.

And the anger is being felt in rural communities up and down the country, including on the doorstep of Greater Manchester. "I felt as if someone had hit me in the guts" Stella said. She spoke to the