The Government commits to producing a Land Use Consultation

The Government has committed to producing a Land Use Framework ('The Framework') for England, covering climate, nature and food. It is intended to be a core mechanism for delivering the government's environmental targets. The Framework will inform and incentivise national and local policy-making and decision-making about land uses.

The Framework will consider multiple land uses and purposes, including:

• Nature recovery
• Climate mitigation and adaptation
• Food and farming
• Water management
• Access and recreation
• Energy and renewables
• Development
• Other critical natural and built infrastructure.

On 31 January 2025, Defra opened the Land Use Consultation (the "Consultation"), designed to provide data on how to make the best use of the finite land available in England.

The Consultation will result in the "most sophisticated land use data ever published", which will be used to create The Framework.

Impact on farms and estates

Currently, agriculture occupies more than 70% of UK land area and farmers play a pivotal role in maintaining and enhancing our dynamic landscapes. There are of course huge demands being made on land in addition to agricultural production. There are leisure and recreation, environmental projects, residential development, national strategic infrastructure and renewables projects

It is hoped that clarity and guidance from the Government on land use on a local and national level will be helpful to manage these competing interests and assist landowners in business planning and diversification strategies based on the classification of their land within the Framework. For example, landowners looking to capitalise on development on part of their land will find it helpful to know if development is one of the land uses listed in their area. Equally, if The Framework suggests the land would be better suited to environmental projects, that could steer the landowner in deciding whether to enter the land into an environmental scheme such as biodiversity net gain. 

As a team of specialist rural and private client lawyers, we completely see the need for the Framework so long as it is based on proper scientific data and results in a balanced outcome. Any framework should acknowledge and manage the risk of competition between land use categories, but ultimately it is hard to see the logic in taking productive farmland out of production in most cases. Food security obviously remains a priority and is essential for England. From a farmer's perspective the key is that there needs to be flexibility so that farming businesses can make informed decisions about the potential of their land. Ultimately, a balanced approach is needed to safeguard farming and food production but also ensuring the other demands can also be sensibly met.

Land also doesn’t have to have an exclusive use, but rather different uses of land can co-exist to ensure environmental targets are met. Land use can be multi-functional. It is about matching the right type of land to the right use. 

Have your say

The consultation closes at 11:59 on 25 April 2025 and The Framework is intended to be published later in 2025. You can find a link to the consultation here. We encourage our farming and landowning clients, referrers and all those interested in the rural land sector to contribute to the consultation.

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