Jeremy Clarkson worries that council can take over his farm
17th March 2025
“I could wake up one morning in the very near future to be told by West Oxfordshire District Council that they now own my farm,” wrote Jeremy Clarkson in response to the latest news that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was introduced to Parliament.
As deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, Angela Rayner explained, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill aims at delivering 1.5 million new homes in the country.
The government confirmed that the Bill will see “significant measures introduced” to speed up planning decisions to “boost housebuilding and remove unnecessary blockers and challenges” to the delivery of vital developments like roads, railway lines and windfarms.
This will boost economic growth, connectivity and energy security while also delivering for the environment, the Labour government added.
MP Rayner said: “We’re creating the biggest building boom in a generation – as a major step forward in getting Britain building again and unleashing economic growth in every corner of the country, by lifting the bureaucratic burden which has been holding back developments for too long.
“The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will unleash seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker to build more homes, and the vital infrastructure we need to improve transport links and make Britain a clean energy superpower to protect billpayers.”
READ MORE: Will farmers be forced by councils to sell their land below market rate?
‘The end for British farming’
One of the key measures, compulsory purchase orders (CPO), is set to hand greater powers to local authorities so they could buy land at its current price rather than the value of what it would be if it were to be developed, The Telegraph reported.
Currently, land bought under CPOs is sold at its so-called ‘hope values’, which reflect beliefs on what the land would be worth with the requisite planning permission.
It can sometimes significantly drive up prices, leading to major delays as owners haggle over values.
Following the new reforms, councils would be able to apply for permission to use compulsory purchase orders without hope values and without needing to consult the government, the media outlet explained.
TV celebrity and farmer Jeremy Clarkson has commented on this news in his latest column for The Sun.
He said that the government’s strategy sacrifices farmers interests in favour of “wind turbines or houses for the dinghy people”.
“I could wake up one morning in the very near future to be told by West Oxfordshire District Council that they now own my farm,” he added.
Mr Clarkson called the policy “truly astonishing,” and pointed out its disturbing similarities to Mugabe’s controversial land reforms in Zimbabwe that resulted in significant economic and farming distress.
He added: “It is without doubt the end for British farming. Farming will go the way of mining, shipbuilding and the steel plants.”
The star of Clarkson’s Farm has also urged British farmers to take inspiration from French agricultural protests, however, he warned against tactics such as “spraying slurry all over the Labour Party’s rural offices” for fear of provoking the wrath of “obergruppen-fuhrer Starmer”.
Mr Clarkson has another idea for a farmers’ protest. He wrote: “Burn every single avocado and every pint of almond milk that comes through a British port. That would get their attention in Islington.”
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