There is a dangerous idea that has taken hold in Westminster: the idea that Lincolnshire is “spare space”.
A flat, empty county waiting to be filled with whatever National Grid, solar, BESS, AI data-centre developers or speculative house builders decide to drop on it.
It is an idea that has taken root not because it is true, but because it is convenient.
And it is now driving decisions that threaten the very industries that keep this county and the country alive.
Lincolnshire is not empty. It is working land, It is the beating heart of British food production, growing 30 per cent of the UK’s vegetables, producing 18 per cent of its poultry, and supporting a visitor economy worth more than three billion pounds a year.
It holds more Grade 1 farmland than any other region in England. It is a place where the soil itself is an asset of national importance. Yet the policies being pushed onto Lincolnshire treat this land as if it were expendable.
The county is being lined up to host a quarter of the UK’s solar capacity, a fifth of its battery storage, and the landfall for forty per cent of its offshore wind.
It is being asked to absorb new reservoirs, new pylons, new substations, and data-centre campuses the size of villages. And on top of that, tens of thousands of new homes, far beyond what our population growth requires.
Housing estates are sprawling on to farmland and solar farms butt up to village edges under the false assumption that Lincolnshire has land to spare.
It doesn’t. Every acre taken for speculative energy infrastructure, AI data centres or housing estates is an acre taken from food production, income from tourism, lost from the rural communities that already sustain this county.
It is an acre taken from the nation’s food security. It is an acre taken from the landscapes that draw millions of visitors. It is an acre taken from the identity and economy of Lincolnshire. And for what?
Solar farms that create no permanent jobs. Battery sites that create no permanent jobs.
Data centres that employ a few dozen people while consuming the power of entire cities. Transmission lines that carve through villages exporting energy but leave nothing behind.
Lincolnshire is being asked to absorb the pain and strain of national infrastructure with little to no gain. But it does not have to be this way.
If the government truly wants Lincolnshire to play a meaningful role in net zero, food security and national resilience, then it must stop treating the county as an empty space and start investing in the industries that already define it.
Farming in Lincolnshire is not a relic of the past. It is a strategic national industry.
Yet for years, farmers here have been fighting the system: fighting subsidy changes, labour shortages, rising input costs, cheap imports, water stress, and planning decisions that take their land. They have been asked to modernise without being given the tools and support to do so. They have been asked to compete in markets that are stacked against them. And yet, still they feed the nation.
If the UK wants secure, affordable, home-grown food, then it must work with farmers, not against them. That means long-term, stable agricultural policy instead of constant reinvention. It means investment in precision agriculture, robotics, sustainable intensification and modern irrigation. It means fair supply-chain contracts and import standards that do not undercut British producers. It means supporting local processing and distribution so that value stays in the county. And it means introducing a simple test for all major developments: does this proposal reduce the nation’s ability to produce food? If the answer is yes, it should not proceed.
Tourism, too, is an industry that already works. Lincolnshire’s coast, The Wolds and market towns draw millions of visitors every year. Tourism is one of the few sectors that can grow without consuming land. It is sustainable, it is local, and it is deeply tied to the character of the county. But it is fragile. It depends on beauty, tranquillity and identity the very qualities threatened by industrialisation. If we want to grow Lincolnshire’s economy, we should be investing in the places people already love, not industrialising the landscapes that draw them here.
And when it comes to industry, Lincolnshire is not without options. The county already has established industrial areas. Grimsby, Immingham, Boston, Grantham, Scunthorpe with ports, rail, brownfield land, workforce and grid capacity. These are the places that can support growth without sacrificing farmland or rural character. If the government wants to expand green manufacturing, offshore wind servicing, hydrogen clusters or logistics, it should start where industry already exists, not scatter it across the county’s most productive soils.
Lincolnshire can absolutely play its part in net zero.
But the current model, vast solar fields, oversized battery compounds, new pylon corridors and data-centre power routes. This is the least efficient and most destructive way to do it.
There is a smarter path: decentralised, community-scale generation; rooftop and brownfield solar first; on-farm renewables feeding local networks; microgrids that keep power local; and grid reinforcement that follows need, not speculation.
This approach protects farmland, strengthens rural resilience and keeps benefits in the community. It is the kind of energy future Lincolnshire could lead. If only it were allowed to.
Lincolnshire does not need to be reinvented as an energy hub. It needs to be recognised for what it already is: a county that feeds the nation, welcomes millions of visitors, supports thriving rural communities and hosts industrial clusters that work. If Westminster chooses partnership over imposition, Lincolnshire will not simply feed the nation; it will help steer it toward a balanced, secure and sustainable future.
Lincolnshire Against Needless Destruction (LAND) are a community group that seek to keep the residents of the county informed about infrastructure developments and the alternatives, whilst lobbying parliament for a fairer more balanced future for the region.
Cat Makinson
LAND
