UK fifth-worst country in Europe for loss of green space to development

Exclusive: 1,680 football pitches of protected natural land in England, Wales and Northern Ireland lost in five years

• Desecration of landscape': the fight over development in areas of outstanding natural beauty

• Revealed: Europe losing 600 football pitches of nature and crop land a day

Nature and farmland equivalent in size to that of the New Forest - 604 sq km - was lost to concrete and bricks and mortar in the UK between 2018 and 2023, according to an investigation by the Guardian and European partners.

In the same period the loss of some of the most protected and special natural areas in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, known as national landscapes, reached 12 sq km; equivalent to 1,680 football pitches worth of natural land.