Our land is pulled this way and that by potentially competing pressures, from the food we grow in a post-CAP UK and the urgent need to regenerate depleted natural resources, to space for affordable houses in rural communities and fair access to the countryside. While Westminster has steered clear of national land use strategy for England, unlike the Scottish and Welsh Governments, England faces the same strategic challenges of growing food, making suitable and sufficient land available for homes and industry, and managing and regenerating natural resources. How should England tackle this - and is there scope for a UK wide approach? And what changes will have most public legitimacy?
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What can Westminster learn from other land use strategies, including in the devolved nations?
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What is the most effective combination of levers to influence land use, such as tax reforms to planning policy or community purchase rights?
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If catchment-scale governance is to have greater influence on land use, how will it overlay and reconcile with administrative boundaries of districts, counties, LEPs and nations? How should we account for potential winners and losers?
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How could intensification and/or complementary mixed use - such as remote working hubs, agroforestry, agrivillages and the integration of leisure and recreation into food production landscapes – change future demand for land?
