We do not pay sufficient for our meals, says Alan Titchmarsh

TV gardener and horticulturalist Alan Titchmarsh has warned that Britons do not pay sufficient for his or her meals – however instructed folks obtain tax cuts for rising their very own.

Talking to BBC Radio 5 Reside after watching PMQs, Mr Titchmarsh mentioned meals accounted for round 30% of family spending in Nineteen Fifties, in comparison with between 8% and 12% right this moment.

“I fear that we do not pay sufficient for our meals and it is a horrible factor to say that when there are folks utilizing meals banks, which is dreadful, we shouldn’t be in that scenario,” he mentioned.

“I fear for the way forward for farming and rising on this nation over the following 50 or so years. Are we going to simply cowl fields in photo voltaic panels? I feel it’s extremely troublesome.”

He additionally had some recommendation for the prime minister over Labour’s goal of constructing 1.5 million new houses in England over the following 5 years.

Requested what query he would have appreciated to have requested Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs, he mentioned: “These one and a half million homes that you just’re wanting constructing, will you be sure that there are additionally one and half million gardens?

“And if there are these gardens there, why not provide a discount in council tax for individuals who domesticate these gardens? As a result of once more, they’re relieving the stress on the NHS, they’re rising a little bit of their very own meals, hopefully. They’re contributing.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Titchmarsh – who has talked prior to now about standing for Parliament as an impartial candidate – additionally referred to as for rural research, together with gardening and the countryside, to be part of the nationwide curriculum in colleges.

In 2012, Mr Titchmarsh was extremely vital of the then coalition authorities’s agricultural insurance policies, prompting a Conservative cupboard minister to model him a “full muppet”.

The farming trade has been warning for a while that the UK must develop extra of its personal fruit and greens.