The Government's land use proposals set out five stages, the first of which is making space for nature.
More than 10% of agricultural land could be sacrificed to accommodate the Government's climate and environment plans under new proposals to determine land use in England.
Launching a consultation on a new strategic approach to managing land use in England, Defra Secretary Steve Reed insisted Labour had a ‘cast-iron commitment to maintaining long-term food production' while protecting the ‘highest quality agricultural land'.
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The proposals set out the Government's goals, focusing on five stages, the first of which is making space for nature. Food production is at number two, followed by housing and infrastructure development; building foundations for economic growth and creating a plan for co-delivery, which will see stakeholders come together to achieve the most productive outcome for the land.
The aim, according to Defra, is to give decision-makers the data they need to protect the country's most productive agricultural land, ‘boosting Britain's food security in a time of global uncertainty and a changing climate'.
Land use framework
Unveiling the plans later today (January 31) at the Royal Geographical Society in London, the Secretary of State for the Environment Steve Reed was expected to explain how the new approach will protect farmland while unlocking growth.
"Using the most sophisticated land use data ever published, we will transform how we use our land to deliver on our Plan for Change. That means enabling the protection of prime agricultural land, restoring our natural world and driving economic growth," Mr Reed is set to say.
However, the plans have been met with ‘huge concern' by Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) chief executive George Dunn, who said: "The Government has identified the first objectives for the framework as making space for nature. It has proposed achieving that objective through four categories of land-use change starting with influencing land management decisions at Stage 1, right up to Stage 4 where land is dedicated only to the production of climate and environmental benefits without any other outputs.
"However, the worrying aspect is that it is anticipated that all the change at Stage 4 will be borne by the agricultural sector with no change anticipated from the urban or non-agricultural sectors."
Mr Dunn said information produced by Defra suggested the area of agricultural land will fall from its current level of 70% of the land area of the country down to 60% by 2050.
Climate goals
"It is unacceptable that UK agriculture will be forced to give up over 14% of its land area for dedicated climate and environmental outputs when the other sectors are providing nothing," Mr Dunn added.
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A better approach, he said, would be to focus on how to take a land sharing approach so land can remain in agricultural production but managed in ways that maximise benefits for climate and nature.
"There is so much good work going on in many aspects of the industry which we need to be prioritising before we take corner solutions which see land taken out of production into potential vanity projects which will deliver little for society.
"Additionally, we need Defra to speed up the work required to ensure tenant farmers are not left out of the opportunities that may arise to contribute to these land sharing aspirations by making sure both the definition of agriculture and the rules of good husbandry, which still apply to agricultural tenancies today despite being written in 1947, are brought up to date."
