A “Clarkson clause” should allow farmers to open farm shops without needing planning permission, according to a group of pro-green Tory MPs who are also calling for greater freedom to put up wind turbines and solar panels on farmland.
The Conservative Environment Network also wants regulators to force supermarkets to pay more for food that meets sustainability standards and to introduce a “buy British” button on websites that will let shoppers filter out food that was not grown in the UK.
The network, which has dozens of MPs signed up, has urged the chancellor to abolish inheritance tax on re-wilded farmland and budget for higher post-Brexit land management payments in a series of reforms designed to head off the kind of protests by farmers seen across Europe.