Solar Farms: Food Security

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – in the House of Commons at on 13 November 2025.

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Photo of James Wild James Wild Shadow Exchequer Secretary (Treasury), Opposition Whip (Commons)

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of solar farms on food security.

Photo of Angela Eagle Angela Eagle The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Only 0.1% of land is used for solar, and half of the agricultural land used for generating solar power is still producing food. Solar farms are not a risk to food security. Instead, they play an important role in diversifying farm income and decarbonising our economy.

Photo of James Wild James Wild Shadow Exchequer Secretary (Treasury), Opposition Whip (Commons)

I think the Minister’s answer was a bit tone-deaf. North West Norfolk’s farms and farmers play a vital role in our food security. My constituents are concerned about the Droves and High Grove solar farms, which will cover 7,000 acres. Why are the Government, and the Net Zero Secretary in particular, obsessed with putting solar farms on Norfolk’s agricultural land rather than on brownfield land and rooftops?

Photo of Angela Eagle Angela Eagle The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

A very small area of land is used by solar farms—as I said before, it is 0.1% of the UK’s total land area. The clean power commitment 2030 will take that up to 0.4%. Our land use framework, which will deal with ensuring that solar farms do not go on prime agricultural land, is due to be published in the early part of next year.

Photo of Neil Hudson Neil Hudson Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Food security is national security, and we are in the middle of a food and farming emergency created by this Labour Government’s policies. From their heartless family farm tax to the closure of vital support schemes, they are damaging farming’s ability to thrive and harming rural mental health. That is only being made worse nationwide, including in my Constituency of Epping Forest, by plans for excessive solar development that risk prime food-producing land being taken away. When will the Government stop this senseless assault on our green belt and countryside, and start putting solar in the right places, such as on brownfield sites and rooftops? When will they start to reverse these damaging policies so that our fantastic farming sector has a fighting chance of being preserved for future generations?

Photo of Angela Eagle Angela Eagle The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

It sounds as though the Shadow Minister thinks that the entirety of agricultural land will be covered in solar. I have already said that it will be 0.4% by 2030, and it provides farmers with extra income. We have a national planning policy framework that prioritises using lower-quality land for such things. He says that he wants solar power on rooftops—well, we are doing that too.

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