Just Grow!

Five years ago, I said the government should map every piece of land by what it's best suited for and use that data to join up decisions currently made in silos by different departments with different maps. This is what they are doing.

The headline: there is enough land for homes, food, nature and clean energy - but only if we use it intelligently.

A few Easter eggs in the detail:

• Around 12% of England's land needs to change use by 2050: 4% staying in food production but adding agroforestry, field margins and species-rich grassland; 6% shifting to nature and climate - peatland restoration, woodland creation, heathland; 1% for renewables; 1% for housing and development. On top of that, the vast majority of remaining farmland needs management changes - better soil health, reduced fertiliser, cover crops.

• These needs will be cascaded through all government department strategies including planning.

• To support policy making and citizens’ decision-making, the government will publish the most detailed digital land use mapping England has ever had - soil maps, updated agricultural land classification, a national spatial priorities map, and free land ownership data for large estates. All freely available.

• The uplands face the biggest shift - peat restoration and water management prioritised, with grazing continuing but livestock clearly declining.

• This is likely to be supported by the announcement that ELM payments will be geographically targeted from 2027, fully by 2030.

• Farmers to shoulder more responsibility for water and flooding, with tighter nutrient controls likely.

• Shooting licensing extended beyond protected sites to protect peat and moorland from poor operators.

• The state explores buying land for peatland restoration. Communities get right of first refusal on land sales.

• "Imported hectares" officially measured for the first time.

• Climate adaptation reporting for major landowners.

• Defra commits to growing "high value food that people recognise on their plates, rather than ingredients for processed and unhealthy food or animal feed." A government white paper calling out UPF.

It arrives in a week when the Iran conflict has pushed up fertiliser prices and reminded us how exposed our food and energy systems are to global shocks. The case for using our land more intelligently - reducing dependence on imported inputs, building a more resilient food system and accelerating the shift to clean, homegrown power - is no longer theoretical. It's urgent. This framework provides the evidence base to do it. Now we need the implementation to match.