Interview: Guy Shrubsole on land being used for the common good

Indeed, conservation groups have found that only 3% of land is effectively protected for nature. Wildlife has declined by 32% on average since 1970, with half of plant species reduced in distribution. And no stretch of river in England is in good overall health.

In his latest book, The Lie of the Land, environmental campaigner Guy Shrubsole explains how a collection of powerful aristocratic landowners have wreaked havoc on the countryside – and how the public can restore it.

Fortune for the few

He tells me how his passion for the natural world was sparked in the 1990s by protests against the Newbury bypass near where he grew up, with the road’s route through woodlands resulting in the felling of thousands of mature trees.

“It left a searing memory after seeing environmental destruction up close in terms of ancient woodlands being despoiled,” he says. “I studied history at university and went on to do a master’s in sustainable development, getting involved in student activism around climate change and the Make Poverty History campaign.”

However, it was only about a decade ago when Shrubsole was investigating the causes of the 2013-14 UK winter floods with Friends of the Earth that he became fascinated by the subject of land ownership. “Poor land management had been denuding our hillsides, draining and desiccating our blanket bogs and peat bogs, and destroying all the ways in which the landscape would naturally absorb more water.

"The demands of private gain and profit shouldn’t take priority over preserving a natural carbon sink"

“It got me thinking: who actually owns those hills? Who owns those peat bogs? Who owns all this land that we could be using in a much more ecologically sustainable way? I started looking into it and realised it was so hard to unpick who owns England owing to secrecy surrounding the Land Registry, so I needed to investigate.”

His research revealed that just 1% of the population owns around half of the land, with ownership concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy families, institutions and the Crown.

Root of the problem

The findings helped spawn Shrubsole’s Sunday Times bestseller, Who Owns England?, and sparked a long-overdue discussion around landownership and property rights.

“The reasons why a lot of large estates have remained large over the centuries has been this very sexist idea of male primogeniture, whereby the eldest male in the aristocratic family inherits all the land and keeps the estate together,” he explains.

“Fundamentally, this all goes back to the Norman Conquest and William the Conqueror, who when he became king said, ‘all the land belongs to me and it’s for me to hand out as patronage’. Having brought over around 200 Norman barons to conquer England, he then proceeded to give land to those aristocratic families, who continue to be major landowners to this day, such as the Grosvenors, who became the dukes of Westminster.”

“But just 5% of land in England comprises homes and domestic gardens, and I care a lot more about the other 95% – I’m much more interested in the people whose homes are actually castles.”

Another rather unique way in which the English talk about land is describing owners as being the ‘trusted custodians of the countryside’; a message that is often reinforced by the National Farmers’ Union. While there are many enlightened landowners who are passionate about protecting the countryside, and who recognise the essential ecosystem services they provide, Shrubsole says that they tend to be “few and far between”.

“They are often a kind of counter-cultural force, rather than the prevailing norm, because so often nature is just seen as private property, rather than as something which the public have a legitimate interest in protecting,” he adds. “Sometimes the demands of private gain and profit shouldn’t take priority over preserving a natural carbon sink, for example, or protecting an ecosystem.”

Dismantling custodianship

Indeed, The Lie of the Land describes how property rights in England not only allow owners to enjoy the fruits of their land and exclude others from it but also provide the protection of jus abutendi – or the right to destroy.

“The government now sees this as an ecologically devastating thing to do, but attempts to rein it in have been opposed at every stage by the owners of thousands of acres of moorland who use it to shoot grouse; burning the land and the heather, changing the ecosystem, killing basically anything that can predate grouse, and presiding over all manner of wildlife crime.

“If you are to tackle some of the worst abuses of land use in this country, you have to contend with the small number of people who own that land and their political power, which is why dismantling some of these myths about custodianship is really important.”

A common treasury for all

Shrubsole believes that the UK government should take inspiration from policies pioneered in Scotland over the past 20 years and introduce a Community Right to Buy in England.

Land ownership is even more highly concentrated north of the border but, since 2003, communities have the first right of refusal to buy land should the owner decide to put it up for sale. Now, half a million acres of Scotland belongs to communities.

“They’re not just buying pubs and village halls – important assets though they are – but also enormous estates; huge 10,000-acre former grouse moors in the case of Langholm Moor,” Shrubsole says. “They’ve had a vibrant public conversation about land, and a lot of the legislation that underpins community buyouts also has sustainable development baked into the heart of it.

“That’s something Westminster needs to learn from and take into English legislation, because there’s a risk it sees community ownership as continuing to be small in scale, rather than allowing communities to dream bigger and think about owning a stretch of river, for example, or a natural flood defence like a peat bog that the town depends upon to protect it from flooding.”

"Reforms have been opposed by the owners of thousands of acres of moorland, who use it to shoot grouse"

I speak to Shrubsole as the Planning and Infrastructure Bill passes through the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The bill aims to remove “unnecessary blockers” to new developments as the UK government tries to deliver 1.5 million new homes by 2030.

He, like many others, is concerned that environmental protection is seen by ministers as one of the blockers. “I’m frustrated by some of the rhetoric from the government, but I would simply say that the biggest blocker to building more affordable housing is not the planning system, but has always been issues around land values.

“If you look at what underpins the value of a house, it’s not that bricks and mortar have suddenly become expensive, it’s the fact that the location value of land has gone up and up. Councils and development authorities ought to be able to buy land at closer to existing use value, which would allow them to buy land a lot more cheaply, and homes to be sold at more affordable prices. So I hope Labour pays much more attention to the fundamental issues driving the housing crisis.”

Introducing a carbon land tax, requiring large landowners to report their stewardship via an ‘ecological Domesday survey’ and encouraging rewilding efforts through environmental land management schemes are just a few more of the reforms that he would like to see and believes the public would approve.

“The Lie of the Land asks for some sensible and moderate reforms that should have been done decades, if not centuries, ago but are particularly relevant in an era of ecological breakdown and the climate crisis.

“If you were to give the public greater access to land through an extended right to roam and greater ability to own land as a community, I think we would see a transformation in the way it is managed and looked after in this country. It would give all of us the chance to be stewards of the land in a way which, up until now, only a very small number of people have been able to.”

The Lie of the Land is now available in paperback here: The Lie of the Land by Guy Shrubsole – HarperCollins Publishers UK