Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to encourage farmers and growers to produce fast-growing willow coppice and miscanthus to be used as an energy source for power stations such as Drax.

While we anticipate that demand for SRC and miscanthus will grow in the coming decades, it is not Government policy to prescribe which crops farmers should prioritise. British farmers know their own land best - carefully planning their planting to suit the weather, their soil type, and their long-term agronomic strategy. We will continue to support farmers, so they can make the right decisions for them and the productivity of their land. Government only provides support for electricity generation from sustainable biomass. The detailed sourcing of sustainable biomass by power stations is a commercial decision for the companies concerned.