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Land use and how to cut the institutional cake

Land is a limited natural resource that has immeasurable influence on us – our environment, economy and well-being. The pressures on land use in England are enormous and growing. The Year Plan for the Natural Environment must address these pressures and set a framework for balancing competing demands, as well as establishing a mechanism for its delivery. This is a huge challenge which will require coordinated and committed work across Government.

May 2016

What do many celebrities and bankers do when they want to invest their riches? They buy a chunk of land in the English countryside. They recognise the value land has, in all senses of the word, as well as respond to the natural urge to have a connection to a piece of land. The Government needs to reflect this economic and emotional value in its 25 Year Plan for the recovery of the natural environment.

Taking a lead from Scotland’s Land Use Strategy, the plan should also consider the numerous pressures on land use and set out how they can be balanced. Climate change (both its direct impact and the impact of measures to mitigate against it); and the need to provide housing and infrastructure for our growing population and lifestyle aspirations are placing increasing demands on the land in this country. The flooding that seems to be becoming an almost routine event for some communities demonstrates how important land use is and how a coordinated approach is vital.

However, addressing all these pressures is beyond the ability of any one Government department, especially one that has undergone such dramatic cuts as Defra. The coordinated action that is required can only be achieved by commitment across the whole of Government.

This means that the institutional arrangements that support the delivery of the Government's 25 Year Plan for the Natural Environment are as important as the policy content of the plan. I know that discussions about institutional arrangements aren’t going to excite many people. But, as someone who worked in central Government for a number of years, I know that these things really matter when it comes to how effective policies and plans are. The trouble is that responsibility for how the land is used is split between various Departments and Agencies – it’s like an enormous acronym roll-call: DCLG, Defra, DECC, DfT, EA, NE, NIC, FC to name but a few. Of course, the institutional cake has to be cut up somehow but, in terms of land use, the slices have definitely got smaller and poorer in recent years. What this means is that each department has less power and, in the current climate, fewer resources to do the joined up work necessary to ensure sensible, long-term decisions are made in the public interest.

So what’s to be done? Somebody, backed up by political support at the highest level, needs to align all these organisations to deliver the long-term objectives of the 25 Year Plan and hold them all to account. A stronger Natural Capital Committee could be the body to do this. With the growing pressures in this country – now the most densely populated in Europe – and the current focus on economic growth and deregulation, it is vital that there is a body that ensures that short-term gain doesn’t outweigh long-term value.

Belinda Gordon

Member of Link's 25 Year Plan for the Environment Group

Head of Government and Rural Affairs, CPRE

Find Belinda on Twitter @BelindaGordon49

The opinions expressed in this blog are the author’s and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership