This morning, the government will launch its consultation on a new strategic approach to managing land use in England. This aims to give decision makers the data they need to protect our most productive agricultural land, and boosting Britain’s food security in a time of global uncertainty and ecological crisis.
The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission has advocated hard for a Land Use Framework. FFCC Chief Executive, Sue Pritchard, welcomed the consultation. She said, “With so many of the government’s missions reliant on good land use decisions, Steve Reed’s announcement today could not be more timely.
“We are pleased to see that the consultation is broad in scope, considering space for nature, climate adaptation, and, crucially, resilient food production, as well as infrastructure and housing. FFCC’s work has shown the importance of locally-led inclusive and transparent co-design and a multifunctional, land-led approach. It’s good to see these principles recognised here.
“Better land use decisions are going to be central to the government’s plans for long term national prosperity. A well designed and inclusive framework should bring together different data, mediate conflicts, optimise decisions, manage uncertainty and ultimately make faster progress towards government milestones. We will be responding to the consultation drawing on our four years work trialling practical approaches.”
Using sophisticated land use data, the Land Use Framework will provide the principles, advanced data and tools to support decision-making by local government, landowners, businesses, farmers, and nature groups to make the most of our land. This will help deliver the different objectives we have for England’s finite land, including growing food, building 1.5 million homes this parliament, and restoring nature.
The consultation will seek views from farmers, landowners, businesses and nature groups across the length and breadth of the country.
As part of a national conversation, there will be workshops across the country, bringing farmers and landowners to the table, to put the insights of the people who manage our landscapes at the centre of our work to develop a final Land Use Framework.
Local planning will benefit from data outlined in the Land Use Framework, combined with the energy and housing spatial plans and a new food strategy. This will help to ensure that Britain can build 1.5 million new homes over five years, a generation of new towns, and the energy infrastructure needed to achieve Clean Power by 2030, while protecting food security and our natural world.
Speaking at the launch at the Royal Geographical Society, the Secretary of State for the Environment Steve Reed will set out how we will protect farmland and unlock growth.
He will say, “Today is the start of a national conversation to transform how we use land in this country. It’s time for policy to leave the chambers of Westminster and reflect the actual lived experiences of farmers, landowners and planners on the ground.
“Using the most sophisticated land use data ever published, we will transform how we use our land to deliver on our Plan for Change. That means enabling the protection of prime agricultural land, restore our natural world and drive economic growth.
“This framework will not tell people what to do. It is about working together to pool our knowledge and resources, to give local and national government, landowners, businesses, farmers and nature groups the data and tools they need to take informed actions that are best for them, best for the land, and best for the country.”
Farming and farmland
Reed will go on to say, “This government has a cast-iron commitment to maintain long-term food production. The primary purpose of farming will always be to produce food that feeds the nation. This framework will give decision makers the toolkit they need to protect our highest quality agricultural land.
“This vision for land is one in which we guarantee our long-term food security and future-proof our farm businesses, support new housebuilding and energy infrastructure, and reduce conflicts that hold up development by creating land with multiple benefits – supporting economic growth on the limited land we have available.
“The Framework will help farm businesses to maximise the potential of multiple uses of land, supporting long-term food production capacity and unlocking opportunities for businesses to drive private finance into the sector. It will support the need to incentivise multi-functional land use that includes food production.
“We will also consult on how data can be used in some planning decisions to improve the resilience of our food system to flooding risk.”
Home building
Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner said, “This new approach will make better use of our land and grasp the opportunities to deliver new homes and infrastructure in the areas most in need, achieving win-win results for both development and the environment.
“Our Plan for Change is going even further to dismantle the barriers holding back growth, so we can raise living standards, get more families onto the property ladder, and deliver a better future for our children and grandchildren.”
Energy
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said, “The biggest threat to nature and food security is the climate crisis, which threatens our best farmland, food production and the livelihoods of farmers.
“As we deliver our mission for the UK to become a clean energy superpower as part of the Plan for Change, we will ensure a proper balance between food security, nature preservation and clean energy. We can roll out renewables in a way that is both positive for our energy security and our environment.”
Forestry
Forestry Commission Chair Sir William Worsley said that there has never been a more crucial time to invest in domestic woodland creation.
He said, “The Land Use Framework will provide principles that promote this and outline the many benefits of woodland creation, including for climate change mitigation, nature recovery, timber production, water quality and quantity, as well as the multiple social benefits. This will play a key role in meeting statutory tree cover and biodiversity targets as well as helping to address the urgent need for improved timber security.”
Nature
Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, said, “Too often the health of the natural environment, farming and ambitions for the built environment are presented as competing interests, with protecting nature portrayed as a barrier to development and food security.
“The fact is though that we can and must do all these things, and by taking a more strategic view of how we use land, we can deliver against government’s stretching legal targets to halt and reverse nature decline, while also enabling the new homes and infrastructure the country needs, including renewable power and reservoirs, while at the same time protecting food security and building resilience to climate change impacts.
“The Land Use Framework is a vital step forward, offering opportunities to move beyond tired old binary choices, between housing and greenspace or nature and food, and onto the more integrated thinking that we must embrace in meeting multiple pressing challenges all at once. This is a key policy that will unlock prospects for the restoration of Nature at larger scale, while at the same time meeting the country’s needs for housing, energy, water and food.”
The next stages of development will involve extensive sector engagement in a collaborative process as we design a final Land Use Framework – informed by the views of landowners, businesses, farmers, and nature groups. This evidence will also feed into the wider reform that we are delivering in the sector through the Farming Roadmap and Food Strategy.
The consultation will run for 12 weeks with the final Land Use Framework published later in the year.