TELEVISION personality and writer Tom Heap spoke to a packed Action on Climate Emergency (ACE) Green Café meeting in Settle recently about his new book ‘Land Smart How to give People and Nature the Space to Thrive’.

Tom, a BBC Panorama reporter with a special interest in environment and science, also works on Countryfile, Newsnight and Costing the Earth on BBC Radio 4.

He examined why we need land and how to give both humanity and nature the space to thrive. It includes discussions with farmers, scientists, conservationists and even warehouse managers who are solving the most pressing challenges facing our countryside and the world.

His book is very timely given the new government’s announcement of its intention to increase house-building and revise and streamline planning rules to enable it to increase its overall yearly target for new homes in England to 370,000 from 300,000. Their proposals also include reviewing local green belt land and identify so called ‘grey belt’ sites – within the green belt.

The implications for nature must not be overlooked as Tom points out we've stolen land from nature, which has led to a mounting toll of extinction and pollution that is now punishing us.

Giving people and nature the space to thrive as well as balancing them with other interests could soon become be one of the key debates to which Tom’s book makes an important contribution.

Land Smart: How to Give People and Nature the Space to Thrive by Tom Heap £20. Published by Atlantic Books.