‘Is that what net zero should be about?' Farmland falls to solar gold-rush

Telegraph

13-07-2025

When tenant farmer Nicholas Waller-Barrett decided to explore ways to boost his small potato farm and chip factory in Norfolk, solar panels were an obvious answer.
A few of the energy-generating panels could, he thought, help provide more power to the farm, which employs nine people from the surrounding villages.
But be careful what you wish for. Waller-Barrett's farm has been targeted for a massive solar plant, which will be called Glebe Farm, and now his landlord plans to take his land away, replacing potato crops with thousands of giant glass panels.
The decision, backed by edicts from Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, favouring solar farms over food production on UK farmland, means his flourishing food business will shrink – and staff will be out of work.
Meanwhile the distant landlord will be quids in, potentially quadrupling their rent with virtually no effort.
'It's like a bombshell hit us,' says Waller-Barrett, whose family has farmed the land at Horsford, north of Norwich, for seven decades.
Waller-Barrett is not alone. All over the UK tenant farmers are being thrown off their land – much of it prime farmland – to make way for solar panels.
Many other farmers who own their land are selling or leasing it to solar companies – all meaning it will no longer produce food.
The reason is simple: farmland typically generates profits of a few hundred pounds per acre when cropped but three to four times that amount when under solar panels.
Farming sacrificed for subsidies
That solar income is generated by government subsidies which in turn are loaded on to consumer electricity bills – so the income is guaranteed, often for decades.
It means money taken from consumers is funding the industrialisation of thousands of acres of prime farmland, converting it from producing food to generating energy.
Waller-Barrett took the land over from his father and, at age 65, wants to hand it to his son, Carl, who has used the 235-acre farm's potato crop to establish a flourishing new business selling pre-prepared chips and roast spuds to restaurants.
Now all that is in danger because of the rush for solar power.
'We don't own the land and our landlady wants to take away 88 acres for solar,' he says. 'We'd have to shrink the business which is terrible for the local economy, our suppliers, customers and staff.'
All over Britain similar trends are at play. According to CPRE, formerly the Campaign to Protect Rural England, 59pc of England's largest solar farms are on once-productive farmland, while a third of the area they cover is classified as 'best and most versatile' (BMV) agricultural land, ideal for growing crops.
CPRE's analysis shows that 827 hectares of this prized land has been covered by solar development – the equivalent to around 1,300 football pitches.
Three solar farms, Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire, Goosehall in East Cambridgeshire and Black Peak Farm in South Cambridgeshire, are located entirely on BMV farmland.
They will provide energy for London, Birmingham and other major cities but will no longer feed people, campaigners say.
Once covered in solar panels, even the best land effectively becomes sterile, apart from occasional sheep-grazing to keep the grass down.
Roger Mortlock, CPRE chief executive, wants the Government to stop targeting farmland and instead ensure 60pc of solar panels are put on buildings or brownfield sites.
'We support net zero and renewable energy but we also want a thriving countryside and productive agriculture,' he says.
Net zero first
Waller-Barrett's potato fields are about to be turned into a solar farm by Pathfinder Clean Energy, a private company. A Planning Inspectorate decision, which approved the decision, makes clear how planners are putting Miliband's net zero targets before food production.
Despite finding that 'the site has significant arable value' and that 'it would no longer be capable of providing such a function' if solar panels were installed, the planning inspector said these considerations were outweighed by the need to reach net zero and address the Government's 'climate emergency'.
It said: 'The National Planning Policy Framework explains that the planning system should support the transition to a low-carbon future and should recognise that even small-scale projects can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
'The proposed development would make a valuable contribution to achieving these local and national goals.'
Mark Kelly, of Pathfinder Clean Energy, says: 'The owners of Glebe Farm are themselves farmers, and their business – like many others – is under pressure from policy and environmental shifts affecting UK agriculture.
'The move to diversify through solar reflects a broader need for rural enterprises to remain viable amid shocks from policy changes, market pressures and increasingly unpredictable weather. The solar project also enables reinvestment into the local area, including potential new employment and community benefit initiatives.'
Such official rulings, ensuring net zero targets are placed above food production, have sparked a gold-rush for solar developments across the UK, but especially in eastern counties, also including Suffolk, Essex and Lincolnshire, as well as in the South West.
The scale of the impact could be huge. Miliband's plans include expanding solar capacity from about 20 gigawatts (GW) now to nearly 50GW by 2030 – and 70GW by 2035.
That means covering thousands more acres of farmland in solar panels, mostly concentrated in sunnier southern England, accompanied by lost food production.
George Dunn, chief executive of the Tenant Farmers Association, points to Sir Keir Starmer's pre-election pledge to protect farmers from rampant solar developments – a promise which, according to Dunn, has not been kept. 'The drive towards net zero cannot be the only consideration when deliberating over solar farms,' he says.
There is, however, little balance in the areas targeted by developers. SolarQ, founded by David Rogers, a retired Oxford University ecology professor, says solar is clustering in England's South West and in eastern shires like Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire – and especially around substations.
In Newark, for example – the constituency of Conservative MP Robert Jenrick – 9pc of the land is being covered in solar while Sleaford and North Hykeham, the constituency of Caroline Johnson, has lost about 7pc. In Selby, home to Labour MP Keir Mather, it's 5pc.
A letter to the Prime Minister last week signed by 30 MPs and peers, and co-ordinated by SolarQ, warned that solar installations were 'being disproportionately sited on better quality farmland'.
'Planning free-for-all'
Such warnings may be too late for the Sturdy family who have been working as tenants at Eden Farm in Old Malton, North Yorkshire, since 1954 – paying rent to a landowning trust.
But the trust wants to take away half their land and turn it into a solar farm – a trend Emma Sturdy, who lives on the farm, refers to as the 'solar clearances'.
'The absence of a clear government strategy has created a planning free for all, and developers are rushing to cash in,' she says.
Lincolnshire's farmland is among the most heavily targeted – despite being some of the UK's most productive. The county produces 30pc of our vegetables, 18pc of our poultry and 12pc of England's total agricultural output.
Yet in Lincolnshire too, the planning inspectorate has consistently ranked food production below net zero in importance –approving over a dozen massive solar farms that will cover swathes of productive farm land in solar panels.
One of them, the Cottam Solar Farm in West Lindsey, will cover around 1,300 hectares making it one of the UK's largest.
Richard Tice, Reform's energy spokesman, who represents Skegness in Lincolnshire, says voters are becoming furious – making solar a key reason why Reform won the county elections and mayoralty in May. 'Solar farms blight the landscape,' he says.
Solar Energy UK, the industry trade body, says only a tiny proportion of UK farmland was being converted to solar with minimal impacts on food production.
Back in Norfolk, Waller-Barrett is worried about the jobs of his family and employees. 'We are going to lose half our output, most of our profits and potentially jobs. Is that what net zero should be about?'