Badenoch pledges inheritance tax exemption for family homes at Conservative conference

Kemi Badenoch promised at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham on Wednesday, October 7, to remove inheritance tax from family homes and raise the tax-free threshold to £1 million for a couple. The pledge would matter to families passing on property if the Conservatives won power, but it has not changed current tax law.

In her keynote speech, Badenoch presented the policy as a way to let people pass a home to their children and grandchildren. She said that people who work and save should be rewarded. The Independent reported cheers and a standing ovation from delegates after the announcement.

What Badenoch promised on inheritance tax

Badenoch said her proposals would more than halve the number of families paying inheritance tax. That is her projection, rather than an observed effect: the party has announced a pledge for a future government, and the measure has not been enacted.

She also described abolishing inheritance tax altogether as an ambition to pursue ‘as soon as we can afford it’. Wednesday’s announcement stopped short of that. It combined an exemption for family homes with a proposed £1 million tax-free threshold for couples; the reporting reviewed does not establish the full legislative details or the proposal’s fiscal cost.

How other parties responded to the family-home pledge

Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson accused the Conservatives of prioritising the wealthiest while families faced the cost of social care. She argued instead for Labour’s proposed national care service, including free personal care for older people who need it. Those are Labour’s criticisms and policy commitments, not measured effects of Badenoch’s proposal.

Reform UK Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick also criticised the proposal as benefiting wealthy homeowners. The Independent reported Reform’s claim, citing Savills analysis, that 2% of UK households would benefit from the family-home measure. The underlying analysis was not reviewed for this article, so that figure remains an attributed claim rather than a verified estimate. Jenrick contrasted the pledge with Reform’s plan to raise the personal allowance to £15,000.

What polls said before Badenoch’s speech

Badenoch delivered the pledge against a difficult electoral backdrop. YouGov said Conservative voting intention averaged 14% in its September polls, two points above a low point the previous year but below the party’s 15% average before the May 2025 local elections. That measure records voting preference before the conference speech, not a response to it.

YouGov found that 28% of Britons would consider voting Conservative in September, six points more than a year earlier. Considering a party is different from choosing it as a current voting preference. In the same analysis, 20% thought the Conservatives were ready to return to government, while 59% thought they were not.

The polling showed a distinction between Badenoch’s personal standing and the party’s position. YouGov reported that her net favourability had improved by 20 points over a year to minus 15, although 47% still viewed her unfavourably and 32% favourably. Different survey questions measure different things, so those figures cannot be treated as a forecast of an election result.

A separate Opinium poll, conducted from September 30 to October 2 and published October 3, put the Conservatives on 17% of voting intention, behind Labour on 30% and Reform UK on 25%. It gave Badenoch a net approval rating of minus one, up two points. Both pollsters’ findings predate the October 7 speech.

What remains unknown after the conference announcement

The immediate change is the Conservatives’ stated tax policy, not the tax paid by households or their standing in post-speech polls. The available surveys establish the position before Badenoch spoke; they cannot show whether the pledge persuaded voters. The eventual scope, cost and implementation of the proposal also depend on details beyond Wednesday’s announcement and on the party winning office.