The Land Use Framework was published in March 2026 - a welcome step in setting the country on a path to greater resilience and economic renewal.
FFCC first called for a Land Use Framework in Our Future in the Land report in 2019. Since then, we’ve run on-the-ground pilots, published reports on how it could work in practice, and last year were commissioned by DEFRA to run workshops to support the government’s Consultation on Land Use. Explore our Rough Guide below for insights from our work.
You can read the government’s final publication here.
The Rough Guide brings together insights and learning from FFCC's
work developing and testing a Land Use Framework.
Our work is informed by on-the-ground experience from two pilot
programmes in Devon and Cambridgeshire and conversations with farmers,
landowners and local communities, policymakers and other experts.
Reports and explainers available through links to the right
Our work testing the Land Use Framework process shows it works best based on a set of principles and practices to align top-down and bottom-up priorities, mediate competing pressures and encourage multifunctionality. It can also bring together key data and expertise, and spatial mapping tools, to guide leaders through better decision-making, optimising land use for multiple benefits.
Land is a limited resource. The Royal Society estimates that the UK would need additional land twice the size of Wales to meet all the targets set by governments over the last few years.
Our research shows that a Land Use Framework - that allows land to provide multiple benefits - is the most promising way to meet the many demands made on land and optimise delivery of social, economic and environmental objectives.
Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland (and the Republic of Ireland) are also developing their own land use decision processes. All four are paying attention to the need for strategic and functional interoperability on critical issues at policy, landscape and catchment level.
Mechanisms to enable better decisions about how land is used have the potential to ensure
that new housing is close to public transport, that we grow enough of
the healthy food we need, that rivers are clean and flood risks – and
droughts – managed, nature is restored, green energy increased, and
carbon sequestered – and more.
In our 2019 report Our Future in the Land, FFCC proposed a Land Use Framework to help improve land use decision-making. Since then, we have produced blogs, briefings, project updates and reports setting out the case for a Land Use Framework with multifunctionality at its heart.
Browse this collection below.
