TV gardener and horticulturalist Alan Titchmarsh has warned that Britons don’t pay enough for their food – but suggested people receive tax cuts for growing their own.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live after watching PMQs, Mr Titchmarsh said food accounted for around 30% of household spending in 1950s, compared to between 8% and 12% today.
“I worry that we don’t pay enough for our food and it’s a terrible thing to say that when there are people using food banks, which is dreadful, we should not be in that situation,” he said.
“I worry for the future of farming and growing in this country over the next 50 or so years. Are we going to just cover fields in solar panels? I think it’s very difficult.”
He also had some advice for the prime minister over Labour’s target of building 1.5 million new homes in England over the next five years.
Asked what question he would have liked to have asked Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs, he said: “These one and a half million houses that you’re wanting building, will you make sure there are also one and half million gardens?
“And if there are those gardens there, why not offer a reduction in council tax for people who cultivate those gardens? Because again, they’re relieving the pressure on the NHS, they’re growing a bit of their own food, hopefully. They’re contributing.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Titchmarsh – who has talked in the past about standing for Parliament as an independent candidate – also called for rural studies, including gardening and the countryside, to be a part of the national curriculum in schools.
In 2012, Mr Titchmarsh was highly critical of the then coalition government’s agricultural policies, prompting a Conservative cabinet minister to brand him a “complete muppet”.
The farming industry has been warning for some time that the UK needs to grow more of its own fruit and vegetables.
