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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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/a><\/p>\n The farming industry has been warning for some time <\/a>that the UK needs to grow more of its own fruit and vegetables. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n