As mentioned here, on 31 January, Defra launched a consultation on what it termed a “national conversation on land use” which, later in 2025, will result in the publication of a national land use framework. On the assumption that the decision to publish does not get derailed as a result of the consultation exercise – which seems highly unlikely – the framework is set to become an important document that informs all national and local land use change. The government says that it is needed, in part, to help it decide where to build the 1.5 million new houses and the roads, railways, and renewable energy infrastructure to go with them.
From an agricultural sector perspective, the land use framework will also be used as a key tool in the delivery of the government’s environmental and carbon neutrality targets. Why that matters to us and our farming clients is because of the scale of land use change that the government is forecasting will be required to achieve those targets. Those changes range from what are described as small changes maintaining the same agricultural land use to a complete change away from agriculture for environmental and climate change benefits. In total, the analytical annex that supports the consultation document estimates that it will be necessary for there to be land use change on over 1.6m hectares (4 million acres) which represents 19% of all land that is currently used for agriculture. Of that total, 0.76 million hectares (1.9 million acres) is estimated to have to come out of agricultural production altogether. That is 9% of the total area currently used for agriculture.
Clearly, for the farms and farmers involved, the decision about which land is going to be taken out of production and how that is going to be achieved fairly will be a big part of the “national conversation”. From what has already been published, the focus will be on less productive land and land in National Parks and National Landscapes. Some will welcome what is proposed but some may see it as nationalisation of land use by the back door. Given its significance, we will be watching this closely and doing all we can to participate in the consultation process. The consultation closes on 25 April 2025 and we would encourage everyone with an interest to respond to it via the consultation website.
