How do we manage the many competing demands on our land for food growing, housing, new reservoirs, clean energy installations and transport links, while also protecting landscapes for beauty, recreation, storing carbon and bringing back wildlife?

The town and country planning system, introduced in 1947, was an earlier attempt to manage how we use our land and to protect the countryside during a post-war housing boom. The decision around what could be built on a parcel of land was taken away from private landowners and passed to local authorities.

Now, the government is proposing a Land Use Framework for England as a kind of national plan that sets out which areas of land would be best suited to which uses. It will guide the land use decisions of local government, landowners, developers, energy and water companies and wildlife organisations.

The Land Use Framework will map out existing land uses and topography, and the agricultural land classifications data that grades land for farming. It will consider the risks of climate breakdown, with data highlighting areas at risk of flooding and coastal erosion. This will identify where it is safe to build housing and how to protect farmland from these risks.

The framework will show the most valuable land for agriculture and discourage its use for housing, solar panels and onshore wind. However, where the soil is poor or the land too wet or exposed for food growing, the farming businesses rely on public subsidies to survive. These payments can be redirected to incentivise new land uses such as peatland restoration, and absorbing floodwaters to prevent flooding of our towns and cities.

The Land Use Framework will show the areas of land with the most potential for nature recovery and outline how the government’s target to protect 30% of land for nature will be met. It will reveal where planting woodland would be most beneficial to tackle climate change and reduce biodiversity loss.

According to Defra, the land area taken by all key utilities across England in 2022, including solar and wind farms, power stations, water works, gas works, and landfill, covered just 0.2% of land, whereas the least productive 21% of farmland produces less than 3% of the country’s food. With proper planning we can meet the many demands we place on the land while maintaining food security and bringing back wildlife.

Under the Land Use Framework, large landowners, country estates, the Church, water companies, the Ministry of Defence and the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster would need to make public how they are using their land. This may meet with resistance from large landowners who are accustomed to having free rein on what they do with their land.

Currently market forces determine how our countryside is given over for development, for energy or for food production, which is haphazard at best. Planning future development and land use in the public interest is such a sensible and obvious step, it is only surprising that this has not already been done.