In the wake of the May 2025 local elections, when Reform UK won hundreds of seats and seized control of eight councils, the party vowed to wage “war” on “net-zero-stupid”.
Reform’s Deputy Leader, Richard Tice, said councils would use “every lever” to block solar and wind projects. “You’re going to waste your money,” was his message to renewable firms trying to build in Reform areas.
But one year on, Reform councils are finding that scrapping net zero is easier said than done.
Councils have attempted to oppose large-scale solar projects, only for them to be pushed through by the Government. Some local authorities are spending tens of thousands of pounds in taxpayer money fighting renewable developments that still go ahead.
Reform ‘makes a show’ of opposing solar
Councillors must comply with local and national planning policy when voting on developments; otherwise, their decisions can be challenged at an appeal. This is making it difficult for Reform councillors to vote down solar.
“All the policy that’s in place at the moment, both at local level and national level, is very strongly in favour of decarbonisation, renewable energy projects, and specifically solar projects,” explained Gareth Phillips, a partner at Pinsent Masons, who advises on solar developments.
This means opposing solar “becomes a bit futile and costly for local authorities”, he explained.
In recent months, the Planning Inspectorate, which decides on planning appeals, has been overturning solar refusals in Reform council areas.
In May the inspectorate pushed through a solar development near Burnhope, Durham, that the local council had rejected following a lengthy campaign by locals. The rejection was made shortly before Reform came into power in Durham, but the local party has been vocal in its opposition to the scheme.
The council’s Reform leader, Andrew Husband, said the local authority spent £83,000 unsuccessfully defending its decision to reject the proposal.
In North Northamptonshire, the Planning Inspectorate has approved a 20-hectare development near Rushden Lakes that went to appeal after the Reform-controlled council failed to make a decision in time last year. The council’s leader, Martin Griffiths, has previously been critical of solar being built on farmland.
It is not only Reform-led councils that are voting down solar projects. However, they have “made a big show” of it, while other councils “didn’t want to draw attention to it”, Philips explained.
This is because councils can sometimes be ordered to pay tens of thousands of pounds if their decisions are successfully challenged at appeal.
Cornwall Council, where Reform is the second-largest party behind the Liberal Democrats, has refused six solar developments over the past two years, all of which have been overturned.
Councillor Rob Parsonage, who was leader of the Reform group until he defected last October, told the Local Government Chronicle that the Reform head office had told councillors to vote down “windmills” and “solar panels”.
However, the situation in Cornwall shows the difficulties in trying to comply with a party line when it comes to making planning decisions. Councillors of all parties in Cornwall are now reluctantly passing solar projects to avoid costly appeals.
Reform takes the Government to court
Councils have even less power to oppose the largest solar projects; developments producing over 100 megawatts of electricity are classified as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects and are decided by the Secretary of State.
A row has erupted between a Reform-led council and the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband after the latter approved plans in April for the UK’s largest solar farm near Scopwick in Lincolnshire.
Lincolnshire County Council, taken over by Reform in 2025, and Conservative-led North Kesteven District Council have submitted a judicial review claim to the High Court. If successful, the decision could be overturned; however, it is currently unclear whether the councils have a viable case.
A Reform UK spokesperson said councils are “simply delivering on the promises we were elected to keep” and said the Government should “change tack and stop forcing these developments onto areas that have voted against them”.
To truly wage war against solar, Reform would need to change the National Planning Policy Framework.
On this, the party have found an unlikely ally in the form of Labour MP for North Durham, Luke Akehurst, who also campaigned strongly against the solar farm in Burnhope that the Planning Inspectorate recently pushed through.
Akehurst argues that the site is unsuitable for solar because it has undergone expensive relandscaping after being used for opencast mining and is an important space for the local community.
“I’m worried that clumsy decisions around siting actually undermine instinctive public support for renewable energy. I would like the National Planning [Policy] Framework to be amended to not have such a presumption in favour of solar farms,” he told The i Paper.
However, it is unlikely that the Government is going to listen to the gripes of opposition councils or backbenchers as it presses full steam ahead on its mission to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030.
“It would require quite a U-turn on policy in order to stop it,” Philips said. “National policy statements would have to be changed, and certainly the Labour government has no intention of doing that.”
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “Solar is one of the cheapest and quickest forms of energy to build – getting us off fossil fuels and delivering energy security so we can get bills down for good.
“All projects are subject to a rigorous planning process and the views of the local community must be taken into account.”
For as long as Labour remain in power, Reform Councils are likely to find their war on net zero is a losing battle.
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