Farming and Food Production: Land Use Framework Debate
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Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
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Farming and Food Production: Land Use Framework
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts(1 month ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
I cannot confirm that question specifically—I would have to go back to the department and check—but I can say that the department is keen to work very closely with tenant farmers. That is why we have a tenant farming commissioner: we want to do everything we can to support more tenant farmers to become profitable and more secure.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)
My Lords, can my noble friend knock this nonsense about solar development on the head, once and for all? Is it not a fact that, if you were to take all the schemes that have been proposed to develop solar energy on agricultural land, it would amount to a very small percentage of agricultural land?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
My noble friend is right that it is a very small percentage. People sometimes think that solar panels are on agricultural land when in fact they are on brownfield. A very large solar development near where I live has just been given permission; it looks like it will be built on a lot of fields but, actually, it is an old mining site and brownfield.