Reform sets out windfall tax on renewables in bid to undo Net Zero

Farmers who build solar panels on their land will not be able to claim inheritance tax relief, Reform UK has said.

Richard Tice also claimed the party would impose a “windfall tax” on renewable energy, as he set out Reform’s plans to “undo the effects of Net Zero”.

Reform would abolish the “appalling family farms tax”, which the Government has introduced alongside all inheritance tax, Mr Tice told reporters at a central London press conference.

The party’s deputy leader added: “But I have to say to those farmers who want to sell out to the renewable industry for solar farms, you can’t have it both ways, folks.

“You’ve got to make a decision, either you are part of food production, part of food security for our nation, or you’re part of the renewables industry. So you can’t double dip.

“If you sell out to the renewables industry, then you would not benefit from that inheritance tax relief. That’s only fair.”

Mr Tice claimed net-zero policies were to blame for the deindustrialisation of Britain, and said a Reform government would propose “probably a generation tax” and a “special corporation tax rate” in order to “recover” the money paid in subsidies to renewable generators.

He said: “This is the best way that we can help get the bills down and lower the cost of living.

“The British people need to know there is a direct link between the cost of all these subsidies to the vested interests in the renewables industry and your bills, your cost of living.

“So we will impose a windfall tax, whether it’s wind, whether it’s solar, whether it’s Drax power station, which is another massive con and rip-off.”

Energy companies and the National Grid are “on notice” to place power cables underground instead of erecting pylons, Mr Tice added.

Giving the example of a project that will see pylons built across East Anglia to connect new wind farms to the grid, Mr Tice claimed burying the power lines would be cheaper, citing an official report.

However, the National Energy System Operator report found the proposal of underground cables was only cheaper in the event all other options were delayed until 2034.

Operating a windfall tax on renewables would help to make bills cheaper, Mr Tice also claimed.

“If we do what we say, we recover give or take £10 billion a year. That’s about three to £350 per household per year,” he said.

Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), claimed Reform’s “statist plan to put new taxes and red tape on British energy would cause household bills to skyrocket and pull the rug on energy firms”.

The CEN chief, which seeks to influence the Tories on green policy, added: “We should be unleashing homegrown energy that can make us more energy secure and self-reliant, not blocking new supply and decimating investor confidence.”

Greenpeace meanwhile described the announcement as “Nigel Farage’s tribute act to Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’”.

Greenpeace UK head of climate Mel Evans added: “This jumble of misinformation and gaslighting is just a cover to allow Big Oil bosses to rake in even more billions in profits while leaving households exposed to more floods and storms and to the volatile gas markets that have pushed up bills.”