NORTH Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has urged the government to back British farmers by upgrading the National Grid and enabling a boost in renewable energy production on farmyards across the region.

Many farmers and businesses across North Shropshire have faced issues with grid capacity limiting what can be produced on-site.

With the costs of petrol and oil rising, this has left farmers footing the bill for a lack of capacity to produce their own energy.

The MP raised this with Nuclear and Networks Minister Andrew Bowie in the House of Commons earlier this week.

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Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, said: “When I speak to our farmers, something coming up time and time again is how lack of grid capacity is stopping their businesses from growing, producing their own clean energy, and creating a more resilient, self-sufficient agricultural sector.

“I raised this with the Minister, as in rural areas like North Shropshire, we are being held back from producing the energy we could by a lack of investment in critical infrastructure.

“The pressure will only increase as people move from oil-fired boilers to heat pumps and from petrol cars to EVs.

“The government needs to get a move on if it wants to level up Shropshire and support our local economy."

Networks and Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie replied: “We are doing everything we can working with Ofgem, as I said, companies, providers, and other organisations to ensure that the grid across the United Kingdom, but in particular rural locations where there is going to be a huge surge in demand, is able to cope and that people have fair and equitable access to that moving forward.”

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