Food production must take precedence over solar farms when it comes to the use of land, Energy Security Secretary Claire Coutinho told Parliament yesterday.
She said the best agricultural land must be protected to ensure the UK’s food security.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set out steps earlier this week to strengthen food security, including protecting ‘Best and Most Versatile’ (BMV) land to ensure large solar projects avoid this higher-quality land where possible.
Solar will instead be developed on brownfield land, contaminated land, industrial land and lower quality agricultural land to better protect food production.
More than a four-fold increase in solar deployment is expected by 2035, but planning policy and the need for the projects to be delivered in a sensible way will be vital, according to Coutinho.
She added that developers and planning authorities must consider the cumulative impact of solar projects on local communities, especially where there is a high volume of applications.
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Coutinho also revealed plans to expand the Renewable Energy Planning Database.
This will include up-to-date data on the type of land used by existing and planned solar projects and allow government to track use of high-quality agricultural land more easily with entries providing the information that will need to be considered during planning.
“As the Prime Minister set out this week, rising threats around the world mean we must have a renewed emphasis on our security,” she said. “That means protecting our food security whilst also delivering the cheap energy we need.”
“We are taking further steps today to make sure we can get that balance right. I want to see more solar on rooftops and where that’s not possible, for agricultural land to be protected [for food production]; and for the cumulative impact on local villages to be considered where they are facing a high number of solar farm applications.”
“We will make sure we reach our targets in a sensible way that delivers clean, cheaper energy but does not compromise our food security.”
Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said that as well as ensuring the UK’s best agricultural land continues to be used for its core purpose of food production, farmers would be helped to expand their businesses with farming grants to enable their investment in rooftop renewable energy generation on their farms.
