Why landowners need a voice in the national conversation on land use

Photo by Luke Thornton on Unsplash

Why landowners need a voice in the national conversation on land use

The perennial concern of landowners across the country is that so much of the good work they do goes unrecognised - but if they undertake a project considered in the least bit controversial complaints come flying in.

If that strikes a chord, then get ready for a whole lot more scrutiny of the work you do as a farmer or Estate owner. Because the Government’s recently announced ‘national conversation’ on a new approach to land use is going to put even greater focus on changes to the landscape.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed has launched a consultation exercise that aims to produce a new framework for the way land is used over the coming decades.

With pressure to improve UK food security, build 1.5 million new homes, generate renewable energy to hit challenging net zero targets and restore depleted wildlife, the conflict over land use has seldom been greater.

For landowners a proposed land use framework offers both a challenge and an opportunity. A challenge because it may impose restrictions on how Estates and farmers can manage their land.

But an opportunity because landowners can influence what the final framework looks like by engaging with the consultation - and provide the solutions to many of the issues the Government has identified.

To start the conversation, ministers have already made some recommendations. They include taking around 9% of land out of food production to make room for energy generation, nature restoration and new homes.

They say it can be done without putting food security at risk and that the measures, including protecting the soil and restoring habitats for pollinators, will actually boost yields and allow farmers to get more food from less land.

And the Secretary of State also insists the Government will not issue binding instructions to landowners.

“This framework will not tell people what to do,” he said. “It is about working together to pool our knowledge and resources, to give local and national government, landowners, businesses, farmers and nature groups the data and tools they need to take informed actions that are best for them, best for the land, and best for the country.”

Even before the beginning of the consultation was announced, Victoria Vyvyan, the President of the CLA told KOR Communication’s Estate Matters podcast she was not in favour of Government intervention in setting land use targets.

She told our podcast host, Anna Byles: “I think CLA members are quite anti big state solutions. I think they would all say: ‘you give us the tools and we’ll deliver you the result that you need’ – and so I’m not a fan of the Land Use Framework because…we see it as vulnerable to becoming an ideological tool and ultimately this is our freehold – we have the freehold of the land to possess to hold and to dispose of.” 

She warns there is a risk that what starts as a conversation ends up as an attack on property rights. She stood by that assessment when the consultation was announced, warning against letting “The Man from the Ministry” come in and tell landowners what to do.

It seems inevitable, however, that this Government, with its powerful House of Commons majority, will get its way and a Land Use Framework will be introduced. That may give landowners keen to develop their land, whether for homes, renewable energy projects or nature conservation, opportunities to fast-track plans with Government blessing.

Don’t imagine, however, that neighbours and stakeholders will automatically see changes to the landscape around them as the Government’s doing. Landowners will still have to justify to their neighbours and the public at large, what they are doing and why.

The need to foster good relationships, engage and explain will become even more important as these changes take effect, even if landowners are working to deliver Government policy. 

The changes coming represent some of the biggest for the rural landscape for decades. The scrutiny landowners will face will be magnified. Explaining all the good work you are doing, as an Estate owner or farmer, will become critical in the coming years as Britain’s countryside changes to face new challenges.

The Land Use Framework consultation is open until 25th April 2025.

If your business needs advice from professional communications and public affairs consultants well-versed in managing positive change, get in touch.