Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential impact of locating large solar farms on agricultural land.

I regularly engage with my Ministerial colleagues in Defra and other Government departments about land use change.

The Government are committed to maintaining the existing strong protections that apply to agricultural land to ensure that our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 does not put current levels of food production at risk.

Our plans to boost solar deployment do not endanger the UK’s food security. The total area of agricultural land used for solar is very small, and even in the most ambitious scenarios would still occupy less than 1% of the UK’s agricultural land.

Each development proposal will continue to be subject to thorough scrutiny, including consideration of land quality and food production.