PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(10 July 2025)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 56079 on Agriculture: Land Use, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of commissioning commissioning independent research to assess the cumulative impact of solar farm development on (a) rural land use and (b) visual amenity.

Asked by:
Sarah Bool (Conservative)

The Land Use Framework will provide a long-term view of land use change. Over the next 25 years, England’s landscapes will need to change to support climate change mitigation and adaptation, economic growth, housing delivery, food production, clean energy and meeting statutory targets for nature recovery

The Land Use Consultation published this year was underpinned by analysis of land use change for nature restoration and other objectives. This included analysis produced by Defra’s Land Use Analysis and Research Programme of potential spatial distributions of change through to 2050.

The evidence base for this consultation also underpins wider Government reform, including a Farming Roadmap, the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan and review of the Environmental Improvement Plan.

Answered by:
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