A new multimillion pound deal could see a district council become the owners of a solar farm.

Forest Heath District Council is considering investing £14.4m to purchase Toggam Farm in Lakenheath, a large scale solar farm of at least 12mw.

The investment is subject to commercial conditions to protect the interests of taxpayers, and the purchase will only be completed if these conditions can be met.

If achieved, the deal has the potential to bring in hundreds of thousands of pounds of income each year to protect key day to day services within the district.

Cllr Stephen Edwards, Forest Heath cabinet member for resources and performance said: 'Government funding for councils is being withdrawn while Council Tax comes nowhere near to covering the total cost of the day to day services that we provide to our communities.

'That means, that we, as a council, are acting more commercially to generate income that will pay for these services – and the potential from the solar farm is huge.

'Capital funding cannot be spent on providing day to day services but by investing it wisely we can create a significant income that will pay towards these.

'We recognise that this is a big sum of public money that we are looking to invest so this will only go ahead when the commercial conditions have been met.'