Today, Defra announces a Consultation on Land Use, a critical step towards the publication of the government’s long-awaited Land Use Framework for England.

Since first proposing a Land Use Framework in our 2019 report, Our Future in the Land, the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) has led trials in Devon and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to test how a Land Use Framework could work in practice.

Working with communities and partners, including the Geospatial Commission and British Geological Survey, we explored how a framework could help everyone make better decisions about land use.

Our work culminated in a report, which found that a Land Use Framework works best as a process, based on a set of principles and practices to align top-down and bottom-up priorities, mediate competing pressures and encourage multifunctionality. By bringing together key data and expertise, and spatial mapping tools, leaders can be guided to better decision-making, optimising land use for multiple benefits.

The Consultation, announced today, will run until the end of April. It will seek feedback from land use decision makers at different scales to understand how to shape the policy to be most effective. The government is also consulting on the best governance structures for the policy and how to most effectively implement it.

FFCC Chief Executive Sue Pritchard welcomed the Consultation, saying...

“After many years of debate and many calls for action, Steve Reed’s launch of a land use consultation is an important step forward. Land is central to national prosperity and we all have a stake in better land use decisions - whether it’s for housing, energy, nature, climate adaptation or more healthy and resilient food and farming. It is good to see that the scope of the consultation is broad and inclusive and centred on multifunctional use of land. We’ll be contributing, drawing on our partnerships trialling approaches in Devon and Cambridgeshire.”

Kevin Bishop, CEO of Dartmoor National Park, said:

“We welcome the consultation on a National Land Use Framework. Dartmoor National Park (through the Land Use Management that the Government has established) will be developing a land use framework for the National Park that will demonstrate how national and local priorities can be combined and all stakeholders involved in land use decisions that support a productive environment (for food, nature, people, climate and culture) and one that is resilient to the shocks of climate change.”

Tom Pearson, a farmer from Cambridgeshire, said:

"As a farmer, I recognise that land, traditionally left to farming, is now under increasing pressure to provide many services. Some of the time, this is a permanent change of use such as housing or transport infrastructure. Other times these services can be delivered alongside food, fuel and fibre production: such as nature, flood mitigation, enhanced public access, carbon sequestration and energy production. As farmers, we have a wealth of knowledge and lived experience in managing our land, and I am very supportive of a land use framework that can bring all relevant knowledge, data and experiences, including from farmers and land managers, to deliver the most sensible solutions to choosing how and where land should be used for these competing, and in many cases, synergistic services."

David Fursdon, a farmer and landowner based in Devon, said:

“As farmer and landowner for many years, I am well aware of a wide range of options available to me in choosing the optimum use for my land. Yet how my land can be multi-functional, profitable and also beneficial to others too is the key. A land-use framework can be the tool to help this to happen.”

FFCC is convening leaders across land use and spatial policy over the next few weeks to discuss the Consultation and explore what implementation might look like in practice.

To find out more about what a Land Use Framework is and why it’s needed, as well as our work testing the process on the ground, visit our Rough Guide below. Or explore the latest findings and evidence in our report.