• Being launched at UKREiiF 2025, a new Landscape Institute (LI) briefing report makes the case for landscape-led development as essential to the UK’s sustainable future.
• Landscape-led development results in many positive outcomes: improving community health, resilience and biodiversity, while creating long-term economic and social value.
• Professionals across planning, development, and policy are urged to engage chartered landscape architects’ expertise from the outset to meet climate, nature, and housing goals.

As the UK gears up to deliver 1.5 million new homes in England alone, a critical new evidence-based report from the Landscape Institute, the chartered body for the landscape profession, sets out how taking a landscape-led approach is the only way to lead and deliver healthy, thriving, nature-positive places for people in the future.

The LI’s landmark briefing — Maximising value from built development: A landscape-led approach is essential for people, place and nature — will be officially launched at the UK Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) on 21 May. It calls on built environment professionals to rethink how we design, build and maintain communities.

The briefing is a strong call to industry — from strategic landowners to local planning authorities, developers to infrastructure funders — with a clear message: placing landscape at the heart of the planning and build process will unlock long-term value.

“Buildings are just one component of new places” says Carolin Göhler FLI, President of the Landscape Institute. “It is the landscape that determines the long-term desirability, distinctiveness and enduring value of a place.”

Landscape architects, supported by the LI’s Royal Charter, are uniquely trained to work at every scale — from masterplanning to site delivery to management — to ensure that the natural and built environments work in harmony together. The report explains that a landscape-led development approach factors in with landscape expertise right from the beginning, making it a core part of the design process.

As society is faced with overlapping challenges of housing need, biodiversity loss, and climate change, the solution is clear: landscape should be the foundation of resilient, liveable and valuable places.

For enquiries, please contact the Landscape Institute press office: pressoffice@landscapeinstitute.org, +44 (0) 0330 808 2230

Engage with the LI at UKREiiF 

Please find a link to supporting imagery here.

Carolin Göhler FLI, President, Landscape Institute, is available for interview upon request.

Representing the Landscape Institute at UKREiiF will be: Carolin Göhler FLI (President), Robert Hughes (CEO), Jonathan Ellis (Director of Membership & Professional Standards), Belinda Gordon (Director of Policy & Public Affairs) and Neelam Sheemar (Head of Marketing, Communications & Events).

Maximising value from built development: A landscape-led approach is essential for people, place and nature — will be officially launched at the UKREiiF Industry in Focus Pavilion at 14:00 on 21 May.

President of the Landscape Institute, Carolin Göhler FLI, will introduce the briefing as chair of the session on Creating Happier, Healthier & Richer Places. She will be joined by industry leaders Roger Madelin CBE (Canada Water – British Land), James Scott (Urban & Civic), Jan Bessell (Royal Town Planning Institute) and Richard Hollison (City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council). Find more information on attendance here.

The Landscape Institute will also be holding two fringe events as part of UKREiiF:

Bradford’s Landscape-Led Urban Revitalisation

• A walk and talk event exploring the urban transformation of Bradford City Centre, with designers and clients.
• 17:30, Tuesday 20 May, from Bradford City Hall. Reserve a spot here.

Networking Drinks and Landscape-Led Briefing Launch

• An opportunity for industry professionals to connect, share ideas on how we can collaborate better, and celebrate the launch of the landscape-led briefing.
• 18:00, Wednesday 21 May, Quarry House, St Peter’s Square, Leeds. Reserve a spot here.

For enquiries, please contact the Landscape Institute press office: pressoffice@landscapeinstitute.org, +44 (0) 0330 808 2230

Image: Claire Hunt CMLI, UBU Design