EXCLUSIVE: Tenant farmers in North Yorkshire say Keir Starmer has let them down after they were forced to hand 42% of their land to a solar developer.
Rob and Emma are the third generation to live and work on the farmland (Image: Ben Lack)
Third-generation tenant farmers in North Yorkshire have accused Sir Keir Starmer of breaking his promise to give them “a fair deal” after they were forced to surrender almost half of their land to a solar development. Emma and Rob Sturdy, whose family has worked at Eden Farm in Old Malton for over 50 years, lost a battle to keep 42% of their farmland this month, after their landlord agreed to lease it to a commercial solar developer.
Plans to hand 110 acres of the 265-acre farm to Harmony Energy for the development of a vast 52.86-hectare solar project were rejected by the local council in 2023. The case then went to a public inquiry, with housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook overturning the decision and giving the scheme the go-ahead earlier this year. Rob and Emma attempted to appeal the final verdict in the High Court, but were told
Rob’s grandfather signed an Agricultural Holdings Act (AHA) tenancy in 1971, enabling three further generations to live and work at the site, ending with Emma and Rob’s children.
But the couple now expect to lose around half of their profits in a move that contradicts the Prime Minister‘s pledge to grant tenant farmers a “fair deal” and keep “the soil beneath their feet … secure” ahead of last year’s general election.
“It’s a real blow,” Rob, 54, told the Express. “We can’t downsize in any meaningful way. You can’t reduce the size of the combine harvester by half, or the grain store. It’s going to be incredibly difficult to absorb that loss.”
A 110-acre slice of the farm will be covered in solar panels (Image: Ben Lack)
Tenant farmers have also been put in a particularly vulnerable position by Labour’s introduction of a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural land worth over £1 million. The changes mean estate owners won’t be incentivised to renew tenancies amid the mounting costs that have seen over 6,000 fishing, forestry and agricultural businesses shut since the 2024 Autumn Budget.
For Rob and Emma, who live on the farm, losing the tenancy would also put their family home at risk – with the threat posed by solar developers willing to pay lucrative sums for land near substations continuing to loom large. The rejection of their High Court appeal has also been a sobering end to a five-year battle that began when the planning application was lodged in 2021.
“We’re absolutely drained,” Emma, 47, said. This fight has honestly changed our lives; it’s changed who we are. Our children are only 11 and eight years old, so this has been going on for almost half their lives.”
“The day that the rejection got overturned, my son asked me, ‘Daddy, if they build solar panels on our fields, will we still have a house to live in?'” Rob added. “He was in tears. It was heartbreaking.”
There may be little to inspire hope in the Labour Government for anyone working in agriculture, following the inheritance tax changes – which the Daily Express is campaigning against as part of its Save Britain’s Family’s Farms crusade – the suspension of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and other contentious policies, but tenant farmers may find their predicament particularly ironic, considering the Prime Minister’s pledge to champion their cause just months before the general election.
During a speech at the National Farmers Union (NFU) conference in 2023, Keir Starmer warned that “changes to inheritance tax could mean landowners don’t renew tenancies in order to pay the tax, potentially making [tenant farmers] feel even more out of control”.
“I want to see more solar farms across the countryside,” he continued. “But we can’t do it by taking advantage of tenant farmers, farmers producing good British food on carefully maintained, fertile land. They can’t plan properly if the soil beneath their feet isn’t secure. It’s a huge barrier to planning sustainable food production, so we’ve got to give them a fair deal, and we’ve got to use our land well.”
A lack of clear guidance around processing solar sites has seen proposals – and approvals – proliferate across the country since Labour was elected, with more than 8,100 major projects currently in the database, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). CPRE research published in July also found that 59% of England’s largest operational solar farms are on productive farmland, with 31% on the nation’s “best and most versatile” (BMV) agricultural land. Around 60% of the 110 acres of Eden Farm earmarked for development is classified as BMV, Rob said.
“What the Government is doing now is contradictory and very disappointing,” Emma said. “We’ve had every argument going for us. It’s top-quality farmland, we’re vulnerable tenant farmers. We had landscape, heritage and food security arguments. The solar project was rejected, 10 votes to 4, by North Yorkshire County Council. There were 500 objections and just 40 people supporting the application. And we still didn’t win. If we can’t do it, I’m not sure anyone can.”
‘We’re drained,’ Emma said. ‘This fight has changed our lives.’ (Image: Ben Lack)
The arable site, which produces wheat and barley, is a cornerstone of local food production; the loss of which would be significant. But Rob and Emma are also unsure if they’ll receive appropriate compensation for the land – with the statutory framework for tenant payouts criticised as inadequate and outdated, and recommended for reform in the 2023 Rock Review into agricultural tenancies.
The couple were offered direct compensation by landowner The Fitzwilliam Trust Corporation, but a miscommunication meant the offer was withdrawn before they could agree to it. Their focus is now on repairing their relationship with the trust, in the hopes of securing at least the short-term future of the remaining farmland.
More than anything, Rob – who has done the majority of physical farm labour since taking on the mantle from his father in 2014 – has found it difficult to accept that the high-quality agricultural land, tended to and invested in by two generations before him, will sit unused beneath rows of solar panels.
“If this was poor land and I was struggling to grow crops, that would be one thing,” he said. “But it couldn’t be more opposite. My dad and I drained the fields and got the soil to the state it’s in now. We cultivated and improved it. You don’t farm this land as if it’s someone else’s. It’s tough thinking that, after my dad and granddad, I’ll be the one to lose it.”
The couple aren’t opposed to the principle of Labour’s goal to reach net zero by 2050, but they warned that prioritising it above all else could come back to bite the government.
“If climate change is the biggest threat to land use, then surely it’s all the more important to look after the good land,” Emma said. “We desperately need a more nuanced discussion around land use. We’re still waiting for the Land Use Framework – that’s supposed to have been coming out for about five years now.
“It’s a dangerous position at the moment where a lot of solar projects are being pushed through because the Government is so target-driven and developers and landowners know they can make money from it.”
“It’s a land grab that could leave farming in an awful position down the line,” Rob added. “Solar panels can go elsewhere – on roofs, for example – and there are other forms of renewable energy. But what gets produced in these fields… I can’t grow potatoes or wheat or barley on a rooftop.”
Professor Michael Alder, founding chair of the UK Solar Alliance, said many other tenant farmers are in a similar position to Emma and Rob. “They miss out but the landlord gets the significant sum of money available, likely to be around £1000 an acre for around 40 years,” he explained.
“This is at the expense of much-needed food production and allowing a very inefficient energy production system. Overall land loss to solar will impact food security and some dangerous decisions are being made. There is a strong likelihood that farmers like the Sturdys will go out of business. The farming sector has lots of problems and tenants suffer more than most.”
George Dunn, chief executive of the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) said the outcome of Rob and Emma’s High Court appeal was “the culmination of a set of catastrophic failures of the planning system and of the safeguards that should be in place to protect tenant farmers”.
“Matthew Pennycook, in coming out in favour of the development, failed to honour the commitment made by the Prime Minister leading up to the July 2024 general election that solar energy schemes would not be taken forward at the expense of tenant farmers,” he added.
“I believe the Prime Minister has a moral obligation to meet with Rob and Emma Sturdy to explain why his very clear commitment to them and other tenant farmers has been so quickly and easily abandoned by the Government that he leads.”
A spokesperson for Harmony Energy said: “This site has been developed in line with planning policy and law, with independent assessments confirming it as a highly suitable location. Our priority is to deliver projects that contribute to a sustainable, homegrown energy system for the UK.”
A Government spokesperson said: “Solar is at the heart of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower. As of September last year, solar farms covered around 0.1 per cent of the total land area of the UK, while bringing huge benefits for the British public and our energy security.
“Projects are subject to a rigorous planning process. Wherever possible, developers should utilise brownfield, industrial or previously developed land. Where the development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, lower-quality land should be preferred to higher-quality land.”
The Fitzwilliam Trust Corporation has been contacted for comment.
