Consultation on the Land Use Framework for England

The Government has recently published the Land Use Framework (LUF) for England which aims to improve the use of land to increase the resilience of society to the impacts of climate change and ecosystem degradation while accelerating the scaling up of building new homes and infrastructure in every English region to address housing shortages.

 Ipsos were commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs to conduct a large scale consultation with stakeholders from across the country from January to April 2025: over 7,000 online stakeholder responses, and 147 workshops, with findings subsequently shaping the framework. Key findings from the consultation included: 

• There was a consensus on the need to balance food production with environmental goals. Many respondents emphasised the importance of environmental restoration and biodiversity, including targeted interventions such as wildlife corridors.
• On the other hand, some respondents cited concern around potential impacts to farmland and agriculture, and the implications this could have for food production.
• Co-design is important to provide opportunity for local knowledge to shape land use strategies, and to integrate data and evidence to ensure robust decisions. processes risk being too top-down, favouring larger landowners or industrial interests, or being tokenistic in their engagement with communities
• Multifunctionality – such as green roofs or food production in allotments – was seen as crucial to addressing competing demands and delivering benefit.
• Flexible land use is essential for adapting to new data and opportunities, but responsiveness should not undermine a stable, long-term vision for land use.
• Long-term coordinated funding streams were perceived as necessary to achieve the required improvements, with prioritisation of incentives required to drive the right change in the right places.

The full report of findings from the consultation can be found here

The LUF that was developed to address these findings is published here