The former chair of the Climate Change Committee has called for a dedicated land use department in central government to bolster net-zero ambitions and unlock more projects.
Former environment secretary John Gummer, also known as Lord Deben, told EG in an exclusive interview that a new ministry is the only way to manage competing requirements, from infrastructure to housing to regenerative farming.
Deben said land use was too tied to housing policy at present, which left much land in the hands of “speculators” or tied up by the planning system.
“There should be a land use department, which would include agriculture, so that it would be responsible for the nation’s use of its land,” he said.
Crucially, the new department “would not be the same as the local government department or the housing department,” he said. Instead, it would be about “the planning of the use of the land”.
“That is just as important as bringing down emissions,” he added. “We’ve just got to realise that that is at the heart of the changes we need to make.”
Deben said he has been calling on the government to make the change for two decades.
Industry players backing the call include the British Property Federation, with director of policy Ian Fletcher pointing to “some merits” that he could see in the proposal.
“A lot of planning policy is not about housing,” said Fletcher.
“Similarly, a lot of housing policy is not about planning. Splitting the two may provide greater focus to both, and help raise the profile of other important issues, such as placemaking.”
For more from EG’s exclusive conversation with Lord Deben read this week’s EG Interview and our latest podcast, which will both be published on egi.co.uk this Friday>>
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