Land Use Framework: How to get the best from our land?

There are many controls on land use to balance the different competing needs we have from our land.

The planning system provides a level of democratic decision making to balance various interests, including economic growth, community need and environmental protection.

There are many controls on agricultural land use. For example, protected sites such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest require permissions for many activities, hedgerows are protected, and some changes in land use, such as woodland creation and ploughing permanent grassland, require Environmental Impact Assessments.

Despite these protections, there is growing concern that the current drive for more housing, renewable energy, and land for nature recovery and tree planting to deliver government goals, will have unintended consequences. A major concern is the effect on the country’s food production capacity at a time when climate change and geopolitics are challenging food security.

In response to these concerns, the government has been developing a Land Use Framework, providing up-to-date spatial analysis and tools to support policy development, planning and decision making related to land use. It could affect almost all CLA members in the future.

The CLA has been working closely with the government on the framework’s development over the last few years, setting out CLA members’ needs and concerns. Our policy briefing was submitted to Defra in April 2023 and contained 11 recommendations.

Ahead of the publication of the Land Use Framework in the summer, Defra has launched a consultation that will inform the framework’s final shape and a range of related issues.

The consultation’s breadth is not surprising given that many policies touch on land use – farming, forestry, environment, net zero, energy, housing, national infrastructure, access – across government departments and local authorities. However, this makes it hard to know how the framework will affect businesses now and in the future, as many areas are under development. This is the next stage of an ongoing land use conversation.

The consultation includes an analysis of the likely required land use change over the next 25 years if the government is to meet its targets for development, renewable energy, net zero, and nature recovery. The key points are:

• 70% of the total land area in England is currently classed as agricultural land.
• An estimated 9% (760kha) of agricultural land is needed for woodland and peatland restoration over the next 25 years, based on current evidence of carbon sequestration or avoidance.
• An additional 8% of agricultural land will need to be put into environmental management, albeit integrated with some level of farming. This will include agroforestry, farm woodland, field margins and low-intensity farming.
• Land use need for housing, energy and infrastructure is relatively small (<2%) compared to that required for nature recovery and net zero.

The land use changes identified are at a national level and take into account how land suitability might change in the future due to climate change and population growth. These changes are not expected to happen overnight, and change is more likely in marginal farming areas.

The Land Use Framework is intended to support development of the policies required to achieve this level of change over time. The modelling is based on robust data and will be updated as new evidence becomes available.

The CLA is working with members through our branch and national committees to inform and develop our response to the consultation, which closes on 25 April.

Please contact susan.twining@cla.org.uk if you have feedback on the proposals.

The CLA’s thinking is also long-term: How will the framework be deployed? How will it influence land use change in the short and long term?

Our key points are:

• We support a strategic Land Use Framework that tests the feasibility and long-term effects of government plans and policies. There must be ongoing monitoring and reporting of land use change, and flexible policy responses to adapt to new circumstances.
• National datasets are rarely accurate at field level, so a process is needed that takes account of landowners’ and land managers’ expertise. Defra must address concerns about data ownership, sharing, misuse and privacy, and develop safeguards.
• There must be assurances that deployment at national, regional or local level will not become prescriptive or bureaucratic, or result in zoning that could stifle economic and environmental development and innovation, instead opening opportunities.
• Protecting agricultural land for future food security is important but requires a flexible approach that considers changing climate, farming systems and societal needs, rather than a simple designation.
• Land use for farming, woodland and environment should not be part of the planning system, as there are already sufficient controls.

There needs to be long-term stability in the government’s policies and schemes to support land use change if landowners and managers are to have the confidence to deliver at the scale needed. This should include innovative approaches to building skills that make the best use of the mapping information for on farm and local land use planning.

While the CLA welcomes the development of the Land Use Framework, it is unlikely to solve all problems. Many decisions on land use come down to a judgment that balances a range of factors, whether formally through the planning system, or within individual businesses. It is essential that landowners and managers have the autonomy to make the right decision on land use for their business.