UCL professor: We need rethink of land management

The country needs a radical rethink of its approach to managing land and land use, according to a major report co-authored by a UCL professor. Mark Tewdwr-Jones, Professor of Spatial Planning and Governance at the UCL Bartlett School of Planning, is one of the leading experts behind Foresight's 'Land Use Futures report', which was published today. Foresight, part of the Government Office for Science, is a thinktank that aims to help the government plan for the future using the latest scientific and other evidence. 'Land Use Futures' looks at how landscapes and land use could change over the next 50 years. It concludes that the present system is in dire need of revision as pressures on land intensify in parts of the country, such as the south east of England. The report, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Communities and Local Government, outlines the findings of a two-year study involving more than 300 experts in subjects ranging from ecology, economics, planning and geography. Professor Tewdwr-Jones, one of eight leading experts who wrote the report, said the issues were enormously complex because land use "relates to everything we do and affects every one of us".