Review of Key Trends and Issues in UK Rural Land Use Living Landscapes Project Final Report to The Royal Society August 2020 Jeremy Burchardt, Joe Doak and Gavin Parker 1 Review of Key Trends and Issues in UK Rural Land Use - Report to The Royal Society Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................. 6 Governance ........................................................................................................................... 6 Integration ............................................................................................................................ 7 Multifunctionality ................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 9 1.1 State of play and areas of concern ........................................................................... 9 1.2 The Royal Society’s approach to rural land use issues .......................................... 9 1.3 The project brief: research aims, objectives and main tasks .............................. 10 1.4 Structure and content ............................................................................................. 11 1.5 Research approach .................................................................................................. 11 Chapter 2: The Emergent Context: Historical Roots and Transformations.................... 14 2.1 The Recent History of Landownership ...................................................................... 14 2.1.1 Changes in the structure of UK landownership ...................................................... 14 2.1.2 Continuities in the structure of UK landownership ................................................ 15 2.2 The Recent History of Land Use Decision-making ................................................... 16 2.2.1 The abandonment of land reform ............................................................................ 16 2.2.2 The mid-twentieth century land use policy context ................................................. 17 2.3 Laying the Foundations of the UK’s Land Use Decision-making System in the post war period ........................................................................................................................... 19 2.3.1 Reviewing rural land use ........................................................................................ 19 2.3.2 The Agriculture Act 1947 and its consequences ..................................................... 20 2.3.3 The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and its consequences .......................... 22 2.3.4 The 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act and its consequences .......................................................................................................................................... 23 2.4 Wholesale Reform – or Tinkering at the Margins? .................................................. 24 2.5 Implications for future directions............................................................................... 26 Chapter 3: Regulate, Deregulate or Steer: the structure and role of the planning system .................................................................................................................................................. 27 3.1 Overview of planning system and recent changes .................................................... 27 3.1.1 Institutional continuities ......................................................................................... 27 3.1.2 Policy and plan hierarchy ....................................................................................... 27 3.1.3 Designations ........................................................................................................... 30 University of Reading, 2020 2 Review of Key Trends and Issues in UK Rural Land Use - Report to The Royal Society 3.1.4 Neighbourhood plans .............................................................................................. 32 3.2 The role of the planning system .................................................................................. 33 3.3 Limits to the system ..................................................................................................... 35 3.4 Implications for key themes ........................................................................................ 37 Chapter 4: Contemporary Patterns of ................................................................................. 40 Land Use, Ownership, Control and Interest ....................................................................... 40 4.1 Land Use ....................................................................................................................... 40 4.2 Landownership ............................................................................................................. 43 4.3 Stakeholder Audit ........................................................................................................ 49 4.4 Implications and Issues................................................................................................ 52 Chapter 5: Rural Policy: The Search for a Vision .............................................................. 53 5.1 International strategies relevant to rural land use ................................................... 53 5.1.1 The UN and International Trade Organisations .................................................... 53 5.1.2 EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)................................................................. 54 5.1.3 EU - Environment ................................................................................................... 55 5.1.4 EU - Rural Development ......................................................................................... 56 5.1.5 EU - Trade and Tariff Agreements ......................................................................... 56 5.2 Current and post-Brexit UK national policy for rural land use .............................. 57 5.3 Local Policy................................................................................................................... 61 5.4 Thematic reflections..................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 6: How Others Tackle It: International Comparisons and Contexts................. 65 6.1 Context is (almost) everything .................................................................................... 65 The limitations and value of comparative analysis ......................................................... 65 6.2 Existing research on international case studies of rural land use ........................... 65 6.3 Selected international cases potentially relevant to the UK context ....................... 68 6.3.1 Japan ....................................................................................................................... 68 6.3.2 New Zealand ........................................................................................................... 70 6.3.3 Sweden .................................................................................................................... 71 6.4 Implications for key themes ........................................................................................ 71 Chapter 7: The Challenges and Opportunities: Into the Future ....................................... 73 7.1 Key questions ................................................................................................................ 73 7.2 Rural policy .................................................................................................................. 73 7.3 Management and political arrangements .................................................................. 74 7.4 The Planning System ................................................................................................... 76 7.5 Stakeholders ................................................................................................................. 77 7.6 Ideas and proposals...................................................................................................... 78 University of Reading, 2020 3 Review of Key Trends and Issues in UK Rural Land Use - Report to The Royal Society 7.6.1 Political visions ....................................................................................................... 79 7.6.2 The Private sector ................................................................................................... 79 7.6.3 Non-governmental and other not-for-profit organisations ..................................... 80 7.6.4 Academic research .................................................................................................. 81 7.7 Conclusion and synthesis ............................................................................................. 82 7.7.1 Sustainable development ......................................................................................... 82 7.7.2 Resilience ................................................................................................................ 83 7.7.3 Regulation ............................................................................................................... 83 7.7.4 Multifunctionality ...................................................................................................