Land use change in Britain

Abstract Data on land use change in the UK and its constituent nations is variable in scope and quality, but has improved in recent years. It shows that the popular image of cities spreading across the countryside is a false one. In fact most new housing is built within existing settlements or in small rural developments, whilst more crop and grazing land has been turned over to woodland in the past 25 years than into housing. It also shows that market forces, taxes and subsidies have a rapid effect on land use decisions by developers, farmers and others, for example on what type of housing to build, what crops to grow and whether to turn farmland into woodland.