# Abolish inheritance tax on the family home

> “Today, the Conservative Party has announced that we will abolish Inheritance Tax on the family home and raise the individual threshold to £500,000.”
>
> — Conservative Party; Conservative Party news release, party conference 2026, 7 October 2026

- **Status:** Promised
- **Status ladder:** Promised → In plan → Legislated → Funded → Delivering → Delivered
- **Policy area:** [Taxes](https://ledgergov.uk/promises/area/taxes)
- **Speaker:** [Conservative Party](https://ledgergov.uk/actor/conservatives)
- **Made on:** 7 October 2026
- **Where:** Conservative Party news release, party conference 2026
- **Cost a year:** Costs £6bn to £10.9bn a year (central £7.7bn)
- **Who it affects:** Estates passing on a main home, which would become exempt, and estates above today's threshold, which would rise to £500,000 per person
- **When:** Not stated ("the next Conservative government"); costed for 2029-30
- **Paid for by:** Through the party's plans "to grip public spending, especially the out-of-control welfare bill"
- **Quote source:** https://www.conservatives.com/news/conservatives-to-abolish-inheritance-tax-on-the-family-home (checked word for word on 8 October 2026; Quoted for reporting; rights stay with the publisher)
- **Last updated:** 8 October 2026
- **Card:** https://ledgergov.uk/promise/uk-con-iht-family-home-2026

## Where it stands

The Conservatives are not in government, so the card stays at Promised. The same release says the individual tax-free threshold would rise to £500,000.

## Timeline

- 7 October 2026, Promised: The Conservatives announce at their party conference that they would abolish inheritance tax on the family home

## About the cost

Year shown: 2029-30. Low is the party's own figure, £6bn a year, from an Onward and Oxford Economics analysis in which inheritance tax liabilities of £12.6bn in 2029/30 fall to £6.6bn. Central and high are the two ends of Tax Policy Associates' independent estimate, £7.7bn to £10.9bn a year, which counts people holding on to homes and moving other wealth into housing. There is no OBR or HMRC costing.

Costing sources:
- [Onward: Assessing the implications of inheritance tax reforms in the UK (7 Oct 2026)](https://ukonward.com/reports/assessing-the-implications-of-inheritance-tax-reforms-in-the-uk/)
- [Tax Policy Associates (8 Oct 2026)](https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/10/08/conservatives-inheritance-tax-family-home-cost/)

## Sources

- [Conservatives: Conservatives to abolish Inheritance Tax on the family home (7 Oct 2026)](https://www.conservatives.com/news/conservatives-to-abolish-inheritance-tax-on-the-family-home)
- [Onward: Assessing the implications of inheritance tax reforms in the UK (7 Oct 2026)](https://ukonward.com/reports/assessing-the-implications-of-inheritance-tax-reforms-in-the-uk/)
- [Tax Policy Associates: Conservative inheritance tax plan cost (8 Oct 2026)](https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/10/08/conservatives-inheritance-tax-family-home-cost/)

## Checks

- Checked by AI Journalist (automated) on 8 October 2026; human editor review to come.

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