Great British Energy Bill

Baroness Young of Old Scone Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 13th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Roborough (Con)]

My Lords, I support my noble friend Lord Fuller’s Amendments 67, 73, 104 and 105, which I have also signed. I first congratulate him on a polished and passionate introduction to his first amendments.

Amendments 67 and 104 would prevent GB Energy supporting renewable energy projects on, or owning, land that is grade 1, 2 or 3 to prevent the loss of good agricultural land. Amendments 73 and 105 would encourage GB Energy to pursue developments on land that has designations of grade 4 or 5 or on non-agricultural land.

The nationally significant infrastructure projects that have been signed by our Secretary of State have already had a detrimental impact on our best and most versatile farmland. In answer to my Written Question on 2 December about the agricultural impact of the Cottam, Mallard Pass and Gate Burton solar farms, the Minister—who is sitting in his place and is also doing such an able job of shepherding this Bill through this House and Committee—stated:

“For each of these cases, the Examining Authorities’ Reports have been published alongside the Secretary of State’s Decision Letters”,


so I had to find the answers myself. The examining authorities are clear that best and most versatile land, including grade 2, is being lost to existing solar developments. It seems hasty that some of the largest and most controversial solar developments appear to be being signed off with little or no weighting given to the quality of the land or food security. The justification seems to be that the land will be returned to agriculture after 30 or so years, as my noble friend pointed out. Unfortunately, we need to eat for those 30 years.

At Cottam, 5% of the area was best and most versatile land. The report said

“according to the ExA, the Proposed Development would not meet the requirements of the NPPF in this regard and subsequently accorded this a negative weighting”.

At Mallard Pass, 40.7% of this project was best and most versatile land, with the remaining 56% grade 3b —so captured by this amendment but not by “best and most versatile”. The report said

“the ExA acknowledges that there is a corresponding degree of conflict with the Government’s Food Strategy aim of broadly maintaining domestic production at current level, and that there is a potential higher agricultural yield and associated economic benefit from the farming of BMV land that would be lost”.

In answer to my Oral Question prior to Christmas, the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, conceded that the Sunnica project had a negative albeit slight impact on farming. In answer to an Oral Question from my noble friend Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, the noble Baroness stated that grades 1 and 2 farmland were not being developed for solar. As my research has demonstrated, this is not entirely true for important grade 2 farmland nor for grade 3a.

It is clear from these examples that the Government’s goal of energy security from renewable energy trumps food security every time. I ask the Minister two questions: with so much land of grade 4 and below in the UK, including in areas with strong solar radiation, why is the Secretary of State so eager to approve sites which undermine our food security? Why are the Government not being straight that this is happening? I had to dig for some time to answer these questions after the replies I was given. Are the Government seeking to hide the embarrassing details of these actions? Research from SolarQ demonstrates that solar development is falling disproportionately on grades 1, 2 and 3 land, and underproportionately on weaker grades. Why is this?

The proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework would remove the protection for agricultural land for food production, simply requiring that poorer land be preferred. Given that the current NPPF is already undermining best and most versatile land use, weakening its protection makes a bad situation worse and makes my noble friend Lord Fuller’s amendments even more important.

At present, it seems that this Government will approve any renewable energy project development that anyone cares to put forward, without an overall strategy for where those projects are best placed. Our Government began development of a land use framework that would help inform and clarify this decision-making. The current Government have committed to continuing this work and publishing that framework in the not-too-distant future; I believe consultation is expected to begin at the end of this month. That would allow for an open discussion about our priorities and a rational process for determining where we want our solar and wind energy infrastructure to make sure that each of our limited and precious acres is put to its best use.

It is clear that our best farmland is not being treasured or protected by the Government and it is critical that we use every opportunity to protect it. In the Great British Energy Bill, we have the chance with these amendments to prevent at least part of the industry pursuing damaging developments that are not in our national interest.

I hope the Minister will see the wisdom of putting these protections in the Bill. Would he be willing in his department’s involvement in the land use frame-work also to ensure that renewable energy project development happens on our least agriculturally productive land?

[Baroness Young of Old Scone (Lab)]

My Lords, this group of amendments pick up the right issue but produce the wrong solution. There is no doubt about it: we need the land use framework to come forward very swiftly to avoid the sort of piecemeal decision-making that we are hearing about, not only on food security and energy but on all sorts of other issues.

To try to task GB Energy with this role is entirely the wrong approach, because the reality is that GB Energy is simply a medium-sized company aimed at investing in a comparatively small number of projects, and again would be a very partial solution to these big dilemmas about how we use the very scarce land we have at our disposition in this country. I want the Minister to press his colleagues in other government departments, because we require a multi-department land use framework that will take a multifunctional look at how we use land. We need not just to look at the strategic spatial energy plan, which will also talk about locational issues and land use in respect of energy; that spatial plan must be nested within the land use framework, and it is increasingly pressing that it comes forward.

The noble Lord, Lord Fuller, asked us to be gentle with him. I will say very gently that in this House we do not talk for 12 minutes on an amendment.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, I support my noble friend Lord Fuller, who put forward a very convincing argument, supported by my noble friend Lord Roborough.

I will make three very brief points. First, surely one of the key lessons of the Ukraine crisis concerns food security. That means taking very seriously our attitude to grade 1 agricultural land. I do not agree with the noble Baroness that this is not the right mechanism for trying to entrench the value of that land. This is a narrow amendment that seeks to put the responsibility on Great British Energy, which is, after all, being created by statute. I can think of no better way of trying to curtail the use of this land in ways that undermine food security.

Secondly, I hope the Minister will find time to comment on the point that my noble friend made on tenant farmers. If a landowner, large or small, decides to embark on a solar project, that is something that he has the right to apply for: it is his land and, arguably, farmers are being encouraged to diversify. If there is a tenant on that land—for example, a family who might well have an expectation to go on farming that land for at least one more generation, maybe for 40 or 50 years—under the 1948 Act, the farmer in question cannot be kicked out if the landowner wants the land for farming. However, if the land will be allocated for other uses and permission is given for a solar array on that land, the tenant has no choice but to vacate his farming operation.

Of course, there will be issues with compensation, but we are talking about a situation that could be incredibly damaging and unfair to a group of farmers in this country. It is a large group of farmers, who are already under a lot of pressure because of other government policies. I urge the Minister to look specifically at that point. If he cannot respond to it today, could he ensure that he writes to Ministers in other departments to clarify it?

Finally, the Government have been quite cavalier in appreciating and valuing local opinion. I will give an example from Norfolk. I declare my interest as a landowner in Norfolk, although what I will discuss is nowhere near where I live. There is a group of solar array applications east of Swaffham on the A47. I think there are five sites—my noble friend Lord Fuller will correct me if I am wrong—amounting to 6,000 acres and straddling about four villages east of Swaffham. There is a huge amount of local opposition. Does the Minister think it right that these people should be ignored? Would it not be far better if the applications went through a local planning process? Indeed, there would be an appeal—but, if so, the local residents would obviously have the chance to put their point of view. Currently, there is a feeling that, in the interests of trying to get these key infrastructure projects through, local people are being ignored and cast to one side.

With those few remarks, I support my noble friends Lord Fuller and Lord Roborough, and wish them well with their amendments.

--- Later in debate ---

[Viscount Goschen (Con)]

My Lords, I remind the Committee of my interests in that I own a farm in Devon.

My noble friend Lord Fuller has done the Committee a service by raising the issues of planning and land resource allocation more generally in the context of the Bill. I listened carefully to the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, and I think she is right: this is a very much broader issue than this relatively narrow Bill. None the less, this is an important moment to raise such issues. I very much hope that we will get a substantive response from the Minister when he addresses these considerations.

[Baroness Young of Old Scone (Lab)]

I was promised by the Conservative Government a land use framework by Christmas 2022; I did not get it. I was promised it by Christmas 2023; I did not get it. I would like it now from a Labour Government.

[Viscount Goschen (Con)]

My Lords, knowing that the noble Baroness has waited so long puts my noble friend’s 12 and a half minutes into perspective. I dare say the Minister will ride to her rescue very shortly.

This is an important issue. We have had a number of agricultural debates over recent weeks, and one of the key themes has been the need to put food production at the very centre of agricultural policy. The view of the farming community is that that really is not the case at the moment. Farmers need clarity around the policy framework in the context of this Bill and, indeed, more broadly.

I listened carefully to the remarks of a number of contributors that even solar installations are long-cycle, high-capital-intensity investment decisions. There is an issue around whether land taken for solar would ever, in reality, be repurposed for agriculture.

I recognise that this is a broader issue in many respects than the narrow confines of the Bill but it is important for the Government to give us the context.

--- Later in debate ---

The current levels of transparency and accountability the Bill includes are a long way from satisfactory for a company that will be able to spend initially £8.3 billion of taxpayers’ money—a figure that, I remind your Lordships, can be increased without limit. If the Minister disagrees with the content of the amendment, I hope at least he will have sympathy with the intent, and will be willing to have further discussions on this and, hopefully, will come up with his own amendments to improve the transparency and accountability of the company on Report.

[Baroness Young of Old Scone (Lab)]

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 90A in my name. At the time that I tabled it, it was a simple little amendment at the fag end of a Bill. Instead, it is now an amendment that threatens to be hated by my own Front Bench and is obviously getting between many Members of the Opposition and whatever they have in mind before they can execute it. But I want to speak to what I think is a very sensible little amendment. Great British Energy has an important role; it has considerable public investment behind it and there is, probably across the Committee, agreement that the reporting requirement in the Bill—that GBE would be required only to submit a normal Companies House report—is simply not enough.

With the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, I tabled Amendment 116, which we discussed earlier in the course of the Bill, which gave an objective to GB Energy, as part of its strategic objectives set by Government, to help to deliver the statutory targets for both climate and biodiversity enshrined in the Climate Change Act and the Environment Act. The Minister promised to reflect further on Amendment 116 between Committee and Report—which assumes that we will eventually finish Committee, which is highly doubtful as we are progressing at the moment.

As a minimum, the Bill should require Great British Energy to report on its achievement of the Secretary of State’s strategic priorities for GBE, including the climate and biodiversity targets, as well as on the progress of community energy. It would be rather strange to determine strategic objectives for GBE without requiring it to report on progress on achieving them.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

My Lords, it has just gone 10 pm. We are just over half way through the Government’s stated targets for this evening. As the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, said, it is highly unlikely that we can finish another eight groups any time soon.

It is a firm convention that the House rises at 10 pm between Monday and Wednesday, and there has been no agreement to the contrary. We have had, thus far to date, one and a half days in Committee against a committed three days. This is a significant Bill; £8.3 billion worth of taxpayers’ money is going into it. We owe it the scrutiny that such public spending, rightly, should deserve. I ask the Government Chief Whip whether he will resume the House now or fairly soon after.