‘For ever, for everyone: What does the nation need from land?’

Increased and competing pressures on our use of land: - for wildlife, water supply and management, food production, biofuels and biomass, carbon stewardship, transport, housing and recreation – pose an escalating environmental challenge at every level. What is our long term vision for land use in the UK, and how can we achieve this?

This lecture by Tony Burton, Director of Strategy and External Affairs, The National Trust is part of the Autumn free lecture series.

Tony Burton is the National Trust’s Director of Strategy and External Affairs with responsibility for policy influencing, campaigning, partnerships, organisational strategy, and foresight. He is a member of the National Trust’s Senior Management Team. The National Trust is one of the world’s premier conservation organisations. It is the third largest landowner in the UK, managing a priceless estate of countryside, coast, gardens and historic properties across England, Wales and Northern Ireland on behalf of the nation. The Trust contributes significantly to the economy of rural areas, supports urban regeneration and improvements to the public realm, develops skills, works with over 50,000 volunteers and is the largest out-of-classroom education provider in the country. The Trust has over 3.5 million members. Tony joined the Trust in 2001 after 13 years at CPRE, which he left as Deputy Director. He has a strong track record of environmental and land use policy making and campaigns, particularly in the fields of land use planning, housing, rural and urban policy. He pioneered the concept of rural tranquility with CPRE and promoted the urban renaissance. Tony was a founder trustee of Heritage Link - the voluntary sector network of organisations with a concern for the historic environment. He was chair of Wildlife & Countryside Link bringing the wide range of environmental NGO’s together – for 5 years. He was a member of the Government's Urban Task Force under the chairmanship of Lord (Richard) Rogers and was also a member of the Sounding Board for Lord Haskins’ review of rural delivery arrangements and DEFRA’s Better Regulation Task Force.

His lecture will cover the following themes: The climate is changing. The pressure on land use is increasing. People’s needs and desires are in flux. So what does this mean for our land? What do we really want from it in the 21st century? And who decides? One thing is clear – despite the policy and media air time devoted to agricultural production and to the use of greenfield sites for development, the debate is moving on. Land not only provides the nation with food and places to build, but also with clean water, protection from flooding, carbon stewardship and green spaces for our health and wellbeing. We all need more of these environmental services, but they are not adequately valued or provided for. Land use planning and farming policy have an important part to play, but they are no panacea and attention should turn to other sources of funding for the answers we need. Through better management we can get more from our land in the face of development, climate change and other pressures. We need to harness new sources of investment and new partnerships to realise land’s potential to provide benefits for us all.

For free tickets and venue details, contact 020 7679 1069 or email environment@fce.bbk.ac.uk