Impact of land use change on food security

A debate will be held in Westminster Hall on Tuesday 18 November 2025, introduced by Wendy Morton MP, on the impact of land use change on food security.

Food strategies

The previous government commissioned Henry Dimbleby to lead an independent review of the food system, which was published as a National Food Strategy in June 2022.

The objectives for the strategy to deliver were:

• a prosperous agri-food and seafood sector
• a sustainable, nature positive, affordable food system
• trade that provides export opportunities and consumer choice through imports.

The report included a recommendation that the government should create a Rural Land Use Framework, setting out which areas of land would be best suited to different functions with a focus on both food production and nature recovery.

In response to the publication of the National Food Strategy, Defra published a Government Food Strategy which committed to the publication of a land use framework in 2023.The framework had not been published by the time the general election was called in May 2024.

The new Labour government set its commitment to publishing a framework in August 2024, stating that “spatial planning will play an important role in the delivery of the Government’s growth and clean energy missions, and the land use framework will work hand in hand with the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan”.

In July 2025 it also published a UK government food strategy for England, considering the wider UK food system. The strategy set high level goals through 10 priority outcomes, but does not contain details on when or how they will be achieved. In the strategy, the government said that transforming the food system was a long term programme of work requiring collaboration with multiple stakeholders and that coordination would be needed with other areas of work impacting the food sector, including "the Land Use Framework, Environment Improvement Plan, Food and Farming Decarbonisation Plan and the forthcoming Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, Farming Roadmap and Farm Profitability Review [and] Circular Economy Strategy”.

A Land Use Framework

The government launched a “national conversation” on land use in January 2025. The consultation document included details of an expanded scope for a Land Use Framework, exploring land use changes implied by commitments to “restore nature, support food production, improve climate resilience and deliver new housing and infrastructure”.

The consultation set out the government’s intention to publish the Framework by July 2025 and explained what it would include:

1. Principles that Government will apply to policy with land use implications.
2. A description of how policy levers will develop and adapt to support land use change.
3. A release of land use data and analysis to support public and private sector innovation in spatial decision making, and the development of tools to support land managers in practice.

Responding to the publication of the consultation Henry Dimbleby explained how he envisaged the Framework working as “in essence, a map: one that contains multiple levels of data about the natural and human geography of England” that would be “used to better inform and align government policy, across all departments”.

Alongside the consultation document the government published an Analytical Annex setting out details of the evidence used, including assumptions and limitations.

The consultation closed in April 2025 and included a date for the publication date for a Land Use Framework of July 2025. However, it has not yet been published.

Land use change and agriculture

The consultation set out the government’s analysis of the approximate percentages of England's total agricultural land area that “may need to change in use or management by 2050” to meet environmental and climate targets “without undermining food production”. These are divided into 4 categories:

• 50,000 ha or 1% of agricultural land: Small changes maintaining the same agricultural land use.
• 370,000 ha or 4% of agricultural land: Changes in agricultural land use, for both food and environmental / climate benefits.
• 430,000 ha or 5% of agricultural land: Changes in agricultural land use, mainly for environmental and climate benefits with limited food production.
• 760,000 ha or 9% of agricultural land: Land use becomes non-agricultural, fully dedicated to delivering environmental and climate benefits.

The government’s assessment is that, based on historical trends of improvements in productivity improvement plus the effect of agricultural innovation, “the impact of these land use changes on domestic food production will be offset by productivity improvements”. The consultation said that the government would put in place policies to support these changes.

Land use for housing and infrastructure

The consultation also set out some estimates for the amount of land use change needed for new homes and utility infrastructure to 2050.

• The government commitment to build a 1.5 million new homes before the end of the Parliament would require around 30,0000 hectares (0.2% of land).
• A total of around 150,000 hectares (1.1% of land) if housebuilding were continued at the same rate to 2050.
• No figure is given for infrastructure but it is estimated to be small “as the land area taken by all key utilities across England in 2022 […] covered just 0.2% of land”.

Further information on housing targets can be found in the Library briefing on housing targets in rural areas published 28 January 2025, including statistics on previous and current housing need figures for rural local authorities and a summary of stakeholder views on rural housing.

Land use for energy

The Clean Power 2030 advice from the National Energy System Operator (NESO) discusses how increasing renewable electricity infrastructure will impact land use. It sets out:

• An additional 25 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity is expected to require 8,600 km2 (860,000 hectares) of sea space.
• 27 GW of onshore wind capacity would require 3,000 km2 (300,000 hectares) of land, which is 1% of Great Britain’s total land area. However, it notes that most of the land (99%) used by onshore wind would remain available for other uses, such as agriculture and pasture.

The Solar Roadmap, published in June 2025, estimates that 0.4% of total UK land could be used by solar farms by 2030. It also sets out how deployment of solar on rooftops can reduce overall land use and that land used for ground mount solar can support improved biodiversity and grazing.

The Library has a number of briefings that discuss how land use for energy (and other) infrastructure is considered through the planning process:

• Planning for solar farms. This briefing discusses land use for solar farms, covering differing stakeholder views and how the planning process treats development on agricultural land.
• Planning for onshore wind. This briefing discusses concerns about onshore wind’s impact on local landscapes, habitats and species.
• Planning and Infrastructure Bill 2024-25. This briefing explains the proposed changes in the PIB to allow greater use of forestry land for renewable energy generation.

Stakeholder views

A number of organisations have published their responses to the government land use consultation, including:

• National Farmers Union (NFU) recognised the growing number of competing demands for land use but warned that “food production cannot be overlooked, especially when the country is currently facing significant global challenges”.
• Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), a statutory body whose role is to support the agriculture sector, raised concerns around the basis of the projected increase in yields and productivity and called for “clear prioritisation rules regarding land use change decision-making”. It called for the Land Use Framework to incorporate climate resilience and take a long-term view.
• CPRE (Campaign for Rural England) called for the Land Use Framework to be brought into force as soon as possible and that it should be backed by a robust suite of supporting targets and indicators.
• Office of Environmental Protection, the environment regulator, welcomed the “intelligent principles for decision making” set out in the consultation.
• Regen, a not-for-profit organisation that provides advice on the transition to net zero, welcomed the development of a Land Use Framework, and called for it to it to help accelerate the energy transition by supporting evidence-based decision making and multifunctional land use. However, they also warned that the Land Use Framework could become an additional barrier to the deployment of renewable energy infrastructure if it is overly prescriptive and not regularly reviewed and updated.

Footnotes