LONDON — Reform UK will not be able to block government-approved large-scale solar farms hated by local campaigners, the party has admitted. 

Richard Tice, energy spokesperson for Nigel Farage’s populist poll-leaders, has tried to channel frustration among some voters at Labour’s plans to back vast solar developments, as ministers rush to hit climate goals by the end of the decade. 

Super-sized solar farms are “so unfair” on local residents, Tice told parliament last May. “Those living in a village or small town in the countryside might all of a sudden find themselves surrounded not by glorious fields, but by black plastic. There is no justification for that, or fairness in it.”

He regularly rails against “net-zero madness.”

But now Tice has admitted to anti-solar groups he is powerless to block many of the projects on their way to development.  

Reform “must be honest” about the scale of the challenge opposition groups face, he said in an exchange of letters with local campaigners last month, seen by POLITICO. 

“I won’t mislead anyone: not every scheme currently in the pipeline can be stopped retrospectively under today’s rules,” he wrote to campaign groups.  

“When we say we will stop or delay these developments, we are not pretending we can magic them all away overnight from opposition,” he added. 

Tice was responding to an open letter organized by campaigners who had met with him and his colleague, Treasury Spokesperson Robert Jenrick, and had grown frustrated over Reform’s perceived failure to match their NIMBY rhetoric with action. 

“There remains growing concern about a potential gap between public statements and deliverable policy, particularly in relation to claims that developments might be ‘stopped,’ ‘delayed,’ or ‘quashed,’” campaigners told Tice in the letter.

Reform constituencies are a key battleground for large-scale solar development. Jenrick is the MP for Newark, where two massive solar farms — One Earth and Great North Road — are proposed. Both await a decision from Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.  

For now, the party is “using every lever available” to block developments, including legal challenges, Tice said.  

This includes Reform-run local authorities Lincolnshire County Council and North Kesteven District Council, which have committed up to £500,000 in public funds to finance a potential judicial review against another development, Springwell Solar Farm. That project was approved by Miliband in April.  

Tice argued there are “excellent grounds” for a challenge, but the numbers are not on the party’s side.  

There have been 230 appeals against solar schemes by English councils since 2011, according to data provided by lobby group Solar Energy UK. Most — 125 — found in favor of developers. And since 2024, out of 27 challenges, all but one have gone the way of developers. 

David White, leader of the Say No to One Earth Solar Farm, who organized the letter sent to Tice, has asked Reform to spell out its approach to challenging new developments. 

White said: “Reform’s position has raised hopes among communities most affected by large-scale solar developments. … The key question now is what is actually deliverable — communities need clear, realistic answers, not just broad commitments.”