Agriculture: Land Use
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure sufficient availability of land graded 1-3a for food production.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has regular discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on a range of issues.
The government places great importance upon our agricultural land and food production.
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that planning policies and decisions should recognise the benefits of the Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land (land in grades 1, 2 and 3a of the Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) system).
Where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality.
The Land Use Framework published on the 18 March 2026 sets out a long-term, strategic approach to using England’s finite land more efficiently to meet the country’s needs for housing, infrastructure, food production, climate resilience and nature recovery.
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