Valuable farmland will be protected from housing, solar panels and onshore wind under a new land use framework, the government has announced.
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, will announce a consultation into how the limited land in England should be used and where is best to farm, restore nature or build infrastructure.
The finished blueprint will use the latest data to map where the areas with the best quality farmland and most potential for nature recovery are and be plugged into the planning matrix used by environment secretary, Ed Miliband, and housing secretary, Angela Rayner. They will be discouraged from planning developments on the areas marked as best for farming and nature.
Climate breakdown risks will also be included in the framework, with the data highlighting areas which are likely to have increased flooding or erosion. This will help plan for where to build housing and also how to protect farmland and nature from these risks.
Tom Lancaster, a land, food and farming analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “English farmers have just suffered the second worst harvest on record after a winter of extreme rainfall, driven by climate change. We’re going to need to use more land to adapt to these extremes and make our farming more resilient, as well as planting the trees and restoring the peat that will absorb carbon, restore nature and so reduce flood risk.”
The framework is important for the UK’s climate and nature targets because reversing the decline of nature by 2030 currently looks out of reach, and nature groups have long argued a joined-up plan is needed to achieve this.
The framework will not include directives about what is to be farmed, the Guardian understands. About 85% of the land that feeds the UK is committed to animal agriculture. The food strategy by Henry Dimbleby commissioned by the previous Conservative government found that for a sustainable future, this has to be reduced, leading to a 30% cut in the average amount of meat consumption.
Article by:Source: Helena Horton Environment reporter
