Large-scale Energy Projects and Food Security

Adrian Ramsay Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Mr Luke Charters (York Outer) (Lab)]

Thank you for calling me, Sir Mark. I congratulate the hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Llinos Medi) on securing this debate.

My perspective is informed by my work as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on UK food security —which the hon. Member is welcome to join—and also my role as a member of the Labour Growth Group, which I suspect she may not be willing to join. I am also proud to be an MP who represents some fantastic rural communities.

In all of those roles, I have seen how renewable projects offer farmers crucial opportunities to diversify their income streams in an unpredictable economic climate. The notion that food security and renewable energy are somehow mutually exclusive is a non sequitur. It does not add up, neither logically nor practically. I can attest to this from my own constituency, where thriving farms producing everything from carrots to poultry co-exist alongside new solar schemes, like Hessay, and hopefully Elvington, too. But when a harsh season strikes—such as a devastating flood or drought—farmers face the real possibility of losing a significant portion of their harvest. In those scenarios, having additional income from solar energy can help.

A striking example of this comes from Australia, where sheep farmers have turned to solar farming as secondary income. They allow their sheep to graze among solar panels, keeping the grass short while the panels provide shelter from the sun. One farm even demonstrated an increase in wool production after the installation of their solar farm. It is that kind of innovation in agriculture that we should embrace. The notion that food security and renewable energy are at odds falls at the first inspection.

Currently, ground-mounted solar panels occupy just 0.1% of all land in the UK. Even with ambitious expansion, this is expected to rise to no more than 0.3%. To put that into perspective, that is less than the land currently used by golf courses, and solar farms provide essential services, be that clean energy or income. Finally, solar farms are often built with temporary permissions, and can be decommissioned, returning the land to its original state. Soil disturbance during installation is minimal, and solar farms can actually benefit soil health, helping it recover from a period of intensive agricultural use.

Let me be clear: climate change is itself a major driver of food insecurity. By supporting renewable energy projects, we are not only protecting our environment, but safeguarding the future of food production.

[Adrian Ramsay (Waveney Valley) (Green)]

I thank the hon. Member for his comments. He has rightly highlighted that solar farms can be combined with food production. There are studies showing that there are even ways in which crop yields can be increased. But would he therefore encourage the Government to be clearer in their national planning policy framework that if solar farm applications are being put forward, they should be combined with food growing as part of the application?

[Mr Charters]

What will really help is if we work towards a position of having a land management framework, so that we can have the clarity of addressing some of these challenges.

Let me continue. The argument that there has to be a trade-off between food security and renewable energy is misguided. If anything, our farmers’ future depends on our commitment to both. With a small slice of land, a forward-thinking approach and a commitment to combating climate change, we can ensure that our fields are productive for generations to come. The solution is clear: renewables should be seen not as an obstacle to food security, but as a powerful tool to help secure it. As I said, golf courses will take up more land than solar projects, so let’s not get caught in the rough—we need to aim straight for the green.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Michael Shanks)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I thank the hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Llinos Medi) for securing this important debate. We have been in a number of debates on topics like this over the past few weeks. It is great that her speech reflected that she is a champion of the renewable sector and the benefits that can bring to her constituency. She said that her constituency is now known as “energy island”, which is a true reflection of the powerhouse it has become in recent years. It has established technologies: solar, as she talked about, but also onshore wind and a number of other projects to come. It is also home to some of our newer technologies: tidal stream projects of around 38 MW are in the contracts for difference rounds, and we will be talking much more about that in the future.

I thank hon. Members for the tone of today’s debate and for their contributions. Our starting point, which the Government have been very clear on from day one, is that we want to deliver clean power by 2030. We want to do that for a number of reasons: to protect people from the wild price spikes that they suffered because of the volatility of global fuel markets, to tackle climate change—a lot of the discussion today on the importance of agriculture misses the importance of tackling climate change, which is currently having an enormous impact on farms right across the country and, if we do not act faster now, will continue to have an even greater impact—and to deliver the energy security the country needs.That will involve a diverse range of projects and technologies

We are not putting one technology forward as the answer to everything—this is about balance, as several hon. Members said today. Yes, ground-mounted solar plays a really important part, but so too does roof solar. We are not picking one or the other. Both are incredibly important, and there are huge opportunities for a rooftop solar revolution, which we will be seeing more about in the months ahead. But ground-mounted solar also has an important role to play. This is a question of balance.

[Adrian Ramsay]

The Minister always engages in a collegiate manner, which I welcome. On rooftop solar, I am sure, despite the disagreements today, that we would all agree that more solar on rooftops is crucial for tackling the climate crisis energy bills. Could he therefore confirm that the future homes standard will require all new homes to include solar panels as standard?

[Michael Shanks]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention and for the collegiate way in which he engages in these debates. We will be saying more about the future homes standard in due course, so I will not announce that here, but his point has been heard.

I want to come back to the point about balance. It is key in a lot of the contributions made today, and indeed in other debates on this subject over the past few months. We have to find a way to balance the environment and our need to protect nature with supporting local communities to make sure that we can deliver cheaper, more secure energy in the future and tackle our climate change objectives. But new energy infrastructure is important in every single one of those points, so we have to build that infrastructure. The question is how to ensure we get that balance right. That is why we have announced that we will have a land use plan—something the previous Government failed to do. But it is also why we need to plan a lot of that infrastructure much more carefully.

I reflect on the point made by the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith) about the number of projects in particular areas, because we can take a lot from that about the cumulative impact of projects. That is why, just today, we commissioned the National Energy System Operator to carry out the first strategic spatial energy plan of the whole of Great Britain. Crucially, we recognise that if we plan new energy infrastructure much more strategically, we will avoid some of the questions that he raises. That is a really important point.

Nothing we have said rides roughshod over the planning system. The planning system in this country is extremely robust. People will continue to have opportunities to engage in that process and be consulted on. No matter the size of the energy project in question, it will be subject to a rigorous planning process, and the views and interests of the local community will be taken into account. On that point, I want to reflect on another Westminster Hall debate on community benefits, which are important here as well, and which the hon. Member for Ynys Môn mentioned in her opening speech. We need to do much more on community benefits, and solar is particularly important in that discussion. We have been very clear as a Government that we want to look at whether they should be mandatory rather than voluntary, and whether we should have a much clearer set of objectives for those funds so that there can be real community benefit. Ultimately, we want to do this with communities. Communities will have to host this infrastructure—there is no getting away from that—but it is important that they benefit from it in the process.

Finally, the Government recognise that food security is also national security, and we will champion British farming while protecting our natural environment. That is why we have already said that we will introduce a new deal for farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen Britain’s food security.

I want to be clear: I do not believe for a second that the accelerated roll-out of clean energy infrastructure poses a threat to food security. There are, of course, huge competing demands on land use throughout the country, and they have to be balanced. However, taking solar as an example, even under the most ambitious plans in the country, less than 1% of the UK’s agricultural land would be occupied by solar farms. I am afraid that the rhetoric does not meet the reality. That point has been backed up by the National Farmers Union, which believes that every farm is well positioned to deliver small-scale solar, wind or battery storage, which can be used on the farm but also provides benefits for local communities.

Food production is incredibly important, as is energy production. Those two are not mutually exclusive, and we can find a way for them to co-exist. I was interested in the point made by my hon. Friends the Members for York Outer (Mr Charters) and for Reading Central (Matt Rodda). I recently visited Manor Farm solar farm, which is a good example of combining an agricultural strategy with a solar farm. It also contributes to the rewilding of areas and to the managed improvement in nature in the local community, which was not being done by the mismanaged agricultural land before, so we can get real benefits from it as well.

This is an important debate, and the balance is key. We have made no secret of this: we want to see the rapid development of energy infrastructure. It is important because people are paying far too much in their bills and we are exposed to volatile fossil fuel markets. For every year that we remain exposed to those markets, we remain vulnerable to the price spikes that our constituents are facing, so it is important to move at pace. I recognise the point made by the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) about the pace at which we are moving, and I am grateful for his recognition of that.

This is our clean power mission. Together, we can provide energy security, reduce costs to consumers, deliver on our environmental responsibilities and ensure that we have economic growth and responsible use of land right across the country. I will close by thanking all hon. Members for participating in the debate. I hope that we will have many more of these discussions. They are important debates to have, and together we can find the balance and deliver the infrastructure and food security that the country needs.