CPRE brings together land use decision-makers for centenary conference

Today (Thursday, June 25), CPRE hosted a conference in London, gathering policymakers, farmers, planners and researchers to confront the growing pressures on England’s land and explore what joined-up thinking could make possible.

The conference asked how more joined-up approaches to land-use decision-making could be designed and delivered, and what needs to change to make that possible.

England is losing countryside at an alarming rate, with 17,000 hectares lost to development every year. At the same time, finite land is expected to grow food, restore nature, support new homes, generate clean energy and help communities adapt to climate change.

Yet decisions that shape England’s land are still too often made in silos, with different sectors pursuing their own solutions independently of one another.

That was the starting point for ‘Running out: facing the crisis in land use’, CPRE’s centenary conference held at UCL East in east London.

Bringing together more than 150 delegates from across policy, planning, farming, conservation and local government, the conference asked how more joined-up approaches to land-use decision-making could be designed and delivered, and what needs to change to make that possible.

Opening the conference, Roger Mortlock, CPRE chief executive, said: “The demands on England’s land have never been greater. The challenge facing us is not simply one of land availability but of how we make decisions about land use in a way that recognises the many competing pressures and opportunities. Addressing this will require collaboration, innovation and a willingness to think beyond traditional boundaries.”

Speaking at the conference, Nature Minister Mary Creagh announced the publication of the Government Estate Nature Plan.

The plan sets out how publicly-owned land will be managed to support nature recovery, climate adaptation and public service delivery through the principles of the Land Use Framework.

CPRE welcomed the Land Use Framework on its publication in March while calling for stronger safeguards to ensure the countryside is protected as competing demands on land intensify.

How did we get here?

The opening session, chaired by CPRE president Mary-Ann Ochota, examined the roots of the land-use crisis.

Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, set out the scale of transformation required in UK land use if the country is to meet its climate commitments and argued that, with the right support, this could represent a real opportunity for farmers and land managers.

Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones, of UCL, traced the structural problems in a planning system asked to deliver contradictory objectives on a finite amount of land.

Author Guy Shrubsole explored how land ownership shaped which decisions even got made and what accountability for landowners might look like.

Sue Pritchard, chief executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, argued that the difficulty of talking openly about land rights and ownership had held back progress for too long.

Designing systems that work

Session 2, chaired by writer and broadcaster Tom Heap, looked at what better systems for land use might actually involve.

Rachel Fisher, chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, called for a National Spatial Framework for England to help bring together the many plans and strategies that shaped decisions about land.

Natalie Prosser, chief executive of the Office for Environmental Protection, reported that the government remained largely off-track to meet its legally binding environmental commitments and set out what the OEP’s recommendations on land use would need to deliver.

Tom Curtis, of 3Keel, argued that spatial plans alone were not enough. The patterns of land use the country needed would also emerge from the way the land economy was structured and how businesses related to the landscapes on which they depended.

The panel was joined by Tom Lafford, of Defra’s Land Use Unit, and Kevin Reid, of MHCLG, offering perspectives on the government’s Land Use Framework and the emerging system of spatial development strategies.

From ambition to action

The final session, chaired by Dame Fiona Reynolds, CPRE vice president, focused on delivery.

Helen Browning, chief executive of the Soil Association, drew on her own farm in Wiltshire to illustrate how agroforestry and enterprise stacking could make multifunctional land use economically viable.

Carolyn McKenzie, of ADEPT, made a challenge to conventional infrastructure thinking, arguing that environment and nature should be understood as first infrastructure, not as something to be mitigated around.

Ellie Brodie, of Grounded Insight, presented new research commissioned by CPRE, exploring how strategic authorities could drive joined-up land-use decision-making across sectors and scales, drawing on analysis of six planning tools and three case studies from across England.

Baroness Barbara Young, chair of the Forestry Commission, closed the conference on an optimistic note, arguing that integrated, practical action on land use was both achievable and essential, pointing to the Forestry Commission’s own opportunity mapping work as evidence of what spatial tools could already do.

Looking ahead

The conference formed part of CPRE’s centenary programme, marking 100 years of campaigning for England’s countryside, from the creation of Green Belts and National Parks to today’s work on land use, nature and climate.