The de facto ban on solar farms will be continued by Rishi Sunak’s government, the environment secretary has signaled. Thérèse Coffey, fresh from her visit to Cop27, suggested to parliament that she would be continuing with policy plans initiated under the former Prime Minister Liz Truss, which would block solar power from most farmland.
Under Truss, Defra officials were looking at how to redefine the best and most versatile land (BMV), which is earmarked for farming, to include the middling-to-low category 3b. The land is graded from 1 to 5, and currently, BMV includes grades 1 to 3a. Planning guidance says that development on BMV land should be avoided, although planning authorities may take other considerations into account. This would mean 60% of all agricultural land would be off-limits to solar farms. It was hoped the Sunak government would reverse this decision, as to reach net zero targets, the country needs a huge expansion of renewables.
However, when asked by the shadow Climate Minister Kerry McCarthy Coffey signaled she would be keeping the policy. She said, “It’s really important we make the best use of our land to have that food security. It’s also really important when considering land use to consider the best place to put renewable energy, which by and large most people would agree, let’s use our best agricultural land for farming and make use of brownfield sites for a lot of this energy projects, too.”
McCarthy said, “It is beyond belief that this government is still considering blocking new solar developments during an energy crisis. This will drive up bills, risk our energy security and prevent us from meeting our crucial climate targets.”
