Slow progress on land strategy risks loss of countryside and food security

England is running out of time to make smarter choices about how land is used, and delays to the government’s promised Land Use Framework could make the problem worse.

A new report by Grounded Insight (comissioned by CPRE) warns that without an overall plan, decisions about housing, farming, energy and nature are being made in isolation. This is already leading to the loss of some of the country’s most productive farmland and putting food security and nature recovery at risk.

Read the report

The report also highlights infrastructure pressures, including renewable energy and grid expansion. With no clear spatial energy plan, major projects are being pushed forward without properly weighing up their impact on farmland, landscapes and local communities.

The research notes that government is still relying on outdated tools to decide where development should go, with farmland data based on climate records from the 1940s and 50s. As a result, more than 14,000 hectares of top-quality farmland have been lost in recent years.

Recommendations

The report sets out nine recommendations:

1. Release the Land Use Framework without delay, with clear governance, cross-department backing, and accountability.
2. Embed the framework at strategic authority level, while linking to catchments, landscapes and local authorities.
3. Use the framework to shape future farm policy and Environmental Land Management schemes, protecting Green Belt from ‘grey belt’.
4. Show how the framework and its data will integrate with the new national infrastructure spatial tool.
5. Update outdated land-use data (like the Agricultural Land Classification) and tackle long-standing biodiversity data gaps.
6. Create accessible, user-friendly decision tools to support joined-up land use choices.
7. Fund and prioritise citizen engagement in big land use decisions.
8. Back local monitoring projects that provide vital data and help prevent environmental damage.
9. Use the framework to guide land use policy and investment over decades, giving clarity to farmers, developers and communities.

Countryside under pressure

Ellie Brodie, director of Grounded Insight, the consultancy commissioned to write the report by CPRE, said:

‘England’s countryside is under unprecedented pressure, with demands from housing, energy, nature recovery and food production all competing for the same finite supply of land. Yet each sector has a separate plan with different timescales – and no cross-government oversight or join-up.

‘The risk now is that irreplaceable countryside could be destroyed, productive farmland squandered, and brownfield land wasted.’