Agriculture: Land Use

(asked on 22nd November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate he has made of the acreage of farm land used for (a) housing development, (b) commercial development, (c) solar panels and (d) battery storage in each of the last five years.


Answered by
Lee Rowley Portrait
Lee Rowley
Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
This question was answered on 1st December 2023

Figures for 2019 onwards are derived using a revised methodology and are expressed as three-year totals. They are not directly comparable with figures for earlier years. Accordingly, the available information for the last three years for which figures are available for (a) and (b) is set out in the table below. Separate figures for (c) and (d) are not available.

Amount of land changing use (acres) (a)

Period (b)

Change of use:

Agriculture to residential

Agriculture to Industry and commerce

2019 to 2022 (c)

9,854

3,168

Source: DLUHC Land use change - hectarage statistics, (part of) Live Table P361 at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/land-use-change-hectarage-2019-to-2022

Notes:

(a) Figures are published in hectares and have been converted into acres for this table.

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