1,000 sq miles of England to be opened up for fracking

Large areas of Yorkshire, north-west and east Midlands earmarked for oil and gas exploration as government announces it will offer licences for 27 new sites

Large areas of Yorkshire, the north-west and the east Midlands are to be opened up to fracking after the government announced it will offer a fresh round of licences for oil and gas exploration.

Areas near Leeds, Sheffield, Lincoln and Nottingham are to be offered to companies in an expansion plan that green groups predicted would trigger "hundreds of battles" over the future of the countryside.