Planning rules for building solar farms on non-prime agricultural land should be scrapped, a thinktank close to Labour has urged. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says the existing planning system is “not fit for purpose” for housing, net zero or restoring nature. IPPR research states that only 17 new onshore wind farms have been approved since the government tightened the rules on such developments in 2015, equivalent to just 0.02% of the total onshore wind that the National Grid Electricity System Operator has estimated England needs.
Call for solar on non-prime land to be exempt from planning rules
