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.

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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