It would help if farmers could sell or mortgage their rural land and use the money to help gain a stronger foothold in the cities.

ECONOMIST: China's future

His new powers extend beyond relief and reconstruction to cover areas including infrastructure, banking and finance, rural and urban land use, telecommunications, defence and security.

BBC: Venezuela parliament gives Hugo Chavez more powers

"We have to take note of these cultural influences, " said Dr Cassidy, whose research was funded by Nerc, the BBSRC. and the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme, which is itself part-funded by Defra.

BBC: Badgers: Splitting public opinion for more than 200 years

The quasi-governmental Rural Development Center suggests extending land-use contracts for 100 years and allowing people to pass the right to farm the land on to their children.

CNN: UP AND DOWN ON THE FARM

Otherwise there will be no chance of the many reforms required outside the forestry sector: in land-use planning and rural development, in agriculture, energy and infrastructure policies, and much else.

ECONOMIST: Seeing the wood

If the Department of the Environment's estimate that, under current land-use patterns, 169, 400 hectares will go from rural to urban use by 2016 is correct, the proportion of England that is considered urban would increase 1.3 percentage points, to 11.9%.

ECONOMIST: Housing