A Land Use Framework for England: will it help join up land use decisions?
Recently CPRE released a report, which I authored, exploring how decisions about land could be more joined up and impactful.
The premise for the report is that there isn’t enough land to do everything that is needed on it and we need to be more strategic, more joined up and more considered around what goes where – especially in a changing climate. A few days later, the Land Use Framework for England (LUF) was released.
The core aim of the LUF is excellent: to support the more effective use of land and describe how change can be achieved if land is used more effectively for multiple benefits. The LUF has three parts:
- a vision for land use in 2030 and 2050
- four principles to guide land use decision-making
- implementing the framework
Our report looked at the ‘enablers’ (conditions) for joined-up decision making and compared six tools across sectors, all of which are – or could be – operable at the Combined Authority and future Strategic Authority level. Tools included Spatial Development Strategies (SDS), Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) and Regional Land Use Frameworks. Given the LUF is intended to support multifunctionality, it seemed a good time to assess whether the recommendations we made in our report aligned with the ambition of the LUF.
Appraising the LUF’s potential for integrating land use decision-making
Improving the availability of decision-making data is a real strength of the LUF. It’s also no mean feat making land data open and linkable, publishing cross-government land use statistics, and improving combined mapping platforms and making sure they work alongside each other. A technical review of the Agricultural Land Classification system is welcome news — and something we called for last year in our report on the ALC system — as is Defra’s promise to publish a map of its public spending on land use change, land management and nature restoration. A new Land Use Unit in Defra is another great step.
But overall, it is light on the scale and urgency of the multiple crisis we are in — climate, nature, food, housing, health, energy — with a rather lacklustre vision for 2050. Perhaps because the LUF can only guide – it can’t tell. Governance-wise, it’s a Defra document, which Defra will update every 5 years and it isn’t written in law. It isn’t clear how other departments like the Ministry for Housing, Communiies and Local Government (MHCLG) or the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) will connect in with it. The recent National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) consultation, which just closed, for example, made no reference to the LUF.
The Land Use Unit could play a valuable role, helping to join up strategies beyond Defra’s remit that still have implications for how land is used. To do this effectively, its relationships with the Treasury, MHCLG and the Cabinet Office need to be clearly defined. So too does its relationship at regional level. The LUF states it will open up data about the land use change needed to meet national environmental, climate and food outcomes for Strategic Authorities to use in developing their Spatial Development Strategies (SDS). SDS will set out the housing and infrastructure needs of an area to meet its economic growth priorities. But it will also be largely leaving it up to ‘local areas and regions to…shape their own plans for efficient land use.’ Some areas like Cornwall and Dartmoor are developing their own Regional Land Use Frameworks which are explored in our report.
The third section of the LUF on implementation has, according to a Defra spokesperson, 81 actions. This is a lot of individual commitments but with little sense on how they will add up to the step change in land use that the LUF imagines. Important incentives for farmers and land managers in changing land use are the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, but the heavy lifting of how ELM could be spatially targeted is kicked over to the forthcoming Farming Roadmap and away from the LUF.
Our report appraised the different land use decision-making tools against key enablers which emerged over the course of the research. This table summarises the key enablers and highlights how the LUF compares:
| Enablers for integrating land use decision-making | Land Use Framework |
|---|---|
| Production required by statute | No |
| Body/organisation mandated for plan creation | Yes – Defra, with the new Land Use Unit in Defra overseeing 5 yearly updates to the LUF |
| Universal geographic coverage | Yes - across England, although there are questions around how the LUF connects with devolved administrations. |
| Scope beyond one government department and/or regulator | Partial - there is scope, but it is a Defra document |
| Scope beyond one sector | Partial - there is scope, but it primarily talks to Defra responsibilities of domestic food production and natural resources. |
| Includes long-term vision (20+ yrs) | Yes - though it is lacks ambition |
| Funding for creation of plan | Yes – the 58 page LUF. |
| Governance: accountability and oversight for implementation | Partial - it is a Defra-owned document and Defra will update it every 5 years. |
| Clear/mandated geographic boundary | Yes – England |
| Plan based on robust / agreed / mandated / national dataset(s) | Yes – this is a real strength and looks to get stronger |
| Includes method to assess and manage land use trade-offs | No |
| Subject to citizen engagement and consultation | Unclear – Land Use was subject to consultation in 2025 with the LUF resulting from it. Future engagement is TBC. |
| Funding delivery mechanism(s) | No - there was no accompanying funding announcement – so it will be delivered through repurposing existing funds. |
Making more out of the LUF
There are several ways the LUF could be more integrative and more impactful.
Embed duties in the Devolution Bill
The Devolution Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, should include a duty for Strategic Authorities to contribute to delivery of nature, clean air and climate targets. The LUF could then provide an evidence base for Spatial Development Strategies, integrating data on growth, health and natural capital alongside the potential for traditional infrastructure to deliver nature and climate benefits.
Join up funding and delivery
Funding for environmental improvements and climate resilience is often fragmented and short-term, with weak or absent statutory responsibilities for delivery. The Land Use Unit could help identify resources, match private finance and better coordinate delivery of key strategies — including climate adaptation and rural development.
Build capacity across the workforce
Delivering the LUF will depend on a stronger, more capable workforce across all institutions responsible for land use change, from strategic leadership through to on-the-ground delivery.
Drawing these strands together, while the LUF is a very welcome step, our headline recommendations to better integrate land use decision-making still stand. While is may not be politically salient at this moment, England still needs a long-term, coherent, overarching plan for its land which goes much further, much faster than the Land Use Framework for England.
