UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is reportedly planning to restrict the installation of solar panels on swathes of British farmland.
According to The Observer newspaper, Sunak and environment secretary Thérèse Coffey have revived plans to put new restrictions by giving new powers to planning officials in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
These would allow officials to block any solar project that can be argued to “put food security at risk”, the report states.
The framework amendment to the NPPF was drafted by Greg Smith, the MP for Buckingham.
He told the newspaper: “This is a clear, straightforward protection that planning authorities up and down the land can use to say this development on this farmland isn’t going to hit our food security in this area, or this one over here is and therefore use that as a good reason to turn down applications.”
Coffey confirmed to The Observer that the NPPF will be coming out later this year and “the first purpose [of farmland] must have to be about food production”.