England will not achieve its legally binding commitments to halt nature’s decline by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 without rapidly changing land use. England must also continue to produce food. Environmental goals can be delivered without offshoring more food production but there are trade-offs: farmed land supports less abundant wildlife than unfarmed land and typically emits, rather than stores, carbon. 

A land use framework is needed to acknowledge these trade-offs, and best mitigate them by guiding environmental action to land least well suited to food production.

This briefing sets out:

• What land uses the framework should cover
• What the land use framework should do
• Our recommended three compartment approach