The Minister seems to be trying to suggest that not much farmland will have to be sold off as a result of this policy. However, on 4 November, following an urgent question, when I asked his colleague the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner), how food security would be preserved if farms had to be broken up and sold off possibly for development, he replied:
“Of course there are trade-offs. There are a range of pressures on our land, in respect of housing, food, energy and so many other things.
That seems to constitute an acceptance that we will lose farming land, and people will be building on it instead.