News • Sustainable Farming Campaign
The House of Lords reports on land use
There are numerous pressures on land in the UK, from agriculture and nature to housing and energy. The Sustain Alliance has been calling for a more strategic approach to land use and we welcome the findings and recommendations in the House of Lords report that has been published today.
In its food strategy, the UK Government committed to publishing a land use framework (LUF) in 2023. This has recently been confirmed by Defra Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, who has said that she hopes to publish it in the first half of next year.
Read the House of Lords Land Use Committee report
In their report, published today, the House of Lords Land Use in England Committee recommends that Defra works with other Departments to bring together all land use pressures into an LUF, creates a Land Use Commission, and takes a multifunctional approach to land.
Vicki Hird, Head of Farming at Sustain said: “We were pleased to give oral evidence to the House of Lords Land Use Inquiry and we welcome the recommendations that have been put forward in the report.
It is vital that a land use framework puts the multiple outcomes from land at its core so that as a country, we can be more strategic on land use decision-making. For instance, farmers need support to transition to agroecological farming, to strengthen the resilience of our food system and to play their role in tackling the climate and nature emergency.
Defra must work with other Departments, including BEIS and DLUHC, to get this right, and we hope to see the Government set up a Land Use Committee to oversee this work.”
Published Tuesday 13 December 2022
Sustainable Farming Campaign: Sustain encourages integration of sustainable food and farming into local, regional and national government policies.
