By Hannah Wood, Strategy Deputy Director, and Fin Rylatt, Land Use Framework lead, Natural England
In this blog post, we explain how the new Land Use Framework sets out a path to clearer, more integrated ways of managing England’s land. The new Framework shows how nature, food production, clean energy and housing can complement each other rather than compete. We highlight that healthy land and thriving ecosystems are essential for climate resilience and national security, and we set out how the framework will guide smarter decisions while strengthening and connecting the work we at Natural England already lead, from nature recovery projects to better data and evidence.
The view towards Grass Wood Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wharfedale, Yorkshire Dales National Park. Protected landscapes offer huge opportunities to achieve the LUF's aims by enhancing nature recovery alongside farming. © Natural EnglandThe publication of the first Land Use Framework (LUF) for England marks a significant step forward in balancing the ever-increasing demands we place on our limited supply of land. With an urgent and increasing need for housing, infrastructure, nature recovery and food production, a shared understanding of land use choices has never been more vital. The LUF provides that clarity, setting a more strategic and joined-up approach to making the best use of our land.
Healthy land underpins everythingThe LUF brings clarity to England’s complex land use challenges, dispelling outdated assumptions that pitch nature against food production or economic development. It demonstrates these priorities are fundamentally connected. Our food supply depends on pollinators and healthy soils, while our communities rely on clean air and water. England’s peat soils alone store around 580 million tonnes of carbon, highlighting the vital role healthy ecosystems play in tackling climate change. Nature doesn’t constrain us – it sustains us and is just as vital to society as our roads, energy grid and water networks.
Through this understanding the LUF enables more confident, informed decisions that support sustainable, long-term outcomes. It provides a basis for moving beyond simple trade-offs and towards integrated, sustainable solutions.
We do have enough land – if we use it wiselyWe know land use decisions are not black and white for landowners, and the LUF tells a similar story at a national scale. The best outcomes are achieved when land use reflects and makes best use of the strengths of the land in a place.
Where housebuilding is needed, the LUF’s commitment to integrated, accessible data and digital mapping will help us to plan our communities more effectively, bringing nature to people’s doorsteps in towns and cities that are better able to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Prime agricultural land will continue to produce food and can do so while boosting nature and storing carbon through practices such as cover cropping, and utilising field margins for tree planting and hedgerows to support healthy soils and crop pollination.
Similarly, where land is needed for clean energy, innovative approaches can combine solar generation with crops, grazing and wildflower meadows, demonstrating how multiple benefits can be delivered from the same area.
Other parts of England hold even bigger potential for nature to flourish, including our treasured national parks and national landscapes. More efficient targeting of investment in these areas – as advanced by the LUF – will help us to restore peatlands, establish species-rich grasslands, and clean up rivers and streams, supporting a rich tapestry of nature.
In turn, these habitats will retain water in the landscape for longer, mitigating the threats of flooding, drought and wildfire. With more than six million properties in England at risk of flooding, these kinds of nature-based solutions are increasingly important for reducing risk and building resilience.
York Central development. The LUF recognises the importance of integrating high-quality green infrastructure and ecological corridors into urban developments for nature recovery and resilience to climate change. © Natural England Security through landWith climate change worsening and global conflicts affecting food and energy supplies, it’s clearer than ever that nature keeps us safe. Healthy ecosystems support the food we grow, the energy we rely on, and our ability to cope with unexpected challenges.
The Government's recent nature security assessment on the threat of global biodiversity loss highlights this clearly: the most resilient countries, best able to adapt in the future, will be those that invest in restoring nature now and at scale.
The task aheadMany of the approaches set out in the LUF are already central to our work at Natural England and this underpins our new Strategy which sets out how we will go further and faster to recover nature to support growth, improve health and enhance security.
This includes Landscape Recovery projects which are bringing land managers together to deliver large-scale nature restoration. Local Nature Recovery Strategies are, for the first time, mapping priorities for nature across every part of England. Our science and evidence base continues to grow through the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme, providing the tools needed to support better decision-making, including resources like the England Peat Map.
The LUF will help to bring these strands together, providing a framework to coordinate action across sectors and stakeholders, collaborations that will be crucial to drive nature recovery.
We look forward to working with both long-standing and new partners to put the LUF into action, and to the important contribution it will make in bringing real benefits to people and communities as we deliver our new strategy.
Read more:
How growth and nature recovery can go hand in hand – blog by NE Chair Tony Juniper. How Landscape Recovery schemes are building the foundations for critical nature infrastructure. seen at 15:33, 2 April in Natural England.