The former union leader warns that farmers are being evicted from their land to get more solar power.
From NOT MANY PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Patsy Lacey
The former head of the British Agricultural Federation yesterday spoke out against large-scale solar farms, claiming “there are a large number who don’t like it”.
But Minette Batters warns that they will continue to be built while her members face uncertainty about the future of dairying and farming – and while wealthy investors can freely buy out much of the countryside.
Ms Batters, a former president of the National Farmers’ Union, also highlighted “horrible examples” of tenant farmers being evicted for huge solar projects so landowners could make more money. more money.
She said such land-use changes will continue while investors including foreign financiers and private equity firms can buy up large portions of the rural landscape without controlled, and at the same time warned: ‘The country is about to be sold’.
Ms Batters called on the next government to prioritize a new land strategy to protect traditional agriculture and have its economic value properly recognised.
Ms Batters warned that solar farms would continue to be built while her members faced uncertainty about the future of the dairy and crop farming industries (pictured: One Place 1,400 acre site proposed for a solar farm in Chickerell, Dorset)
She added: ‘We are a country for sale. We are selling land to people who don’t pay taxes here. It has to change.”
She says she can understand the opposition to solar farms – but also sympathizes with farmers who make money from such projects because they provide a guaranteed, linked income. linked to the index for decades.
‘You can understand at the moment, from a farmer’s perspective… £1,200 a hectare (per year), index-linked, locked in for 20 years, what’s not to like?’ she speaks.
‘For everyone else, there’s a lot to dislike. This is the problem with solar farms. There will be one beneficiary.’
But Ms. Batters said that in some cases, farmers themselves have been forced to leave their farms to make way for solar farms if they are tenants of larger landowners.
She said: ‘We are seeing terrible examples of some landowners taking back tenants’ land to put in solar power.’
Ms Batters criticized the way land ownership by wealthy investors, including private equity firms, was allowed to proliferate – and called for action.
Citing the debt-based private equity takeover of supermarket chain Morrisons which the Daily Mail campaigned against, she said: ‘We saw what happened to Morrisons. We may not have British-owned supermarkets for another 10 years.
‘Now, private equity has moved into land. This country is for sale.
‘I remember having a conversation with (former Prime Minister) Kwasi Kwarteng. “You can’t be a free market one day and not the next,” he said.
‘We are a country for sale. We are selling land to people who don’t pay taxes here. It has to change.”
Ms Batters called on the next government to prioritize a new land strategy to protect traditional agriculture and have its economic value properly recognised.
Related
