AbstractWe present the first assessment of the impact of land use change (LUC) to second‐generation (2G) bioenergy crops on ecosystem services (ES) resolved spatially for Great Britain (GB). A systematic approach was used to assess available evidence on the impacts ofLUCfrom arable, semi‐improved grassland or woodland/forest, to 2G bioenergy crops, for which a quantitative ‘threat matrix’ was developed. The threat matrix was used to estimate potential impacts of transitions to eitherMiscanthus, short‐rotation coppice (SRC, willow and poplar) or short‐rotation forestry (SRF). TheESeffects were found to be largely dependent on previous land uses rather than the choice of 2G crop when assessing the technical potential of available biomass with a transition from arable crops resulting in the most positive effect onES. Combining these data with constraint masks and available land forSRCandMiscanthus(SRFomitted from this stage due to lack of data), south‐west and north‐west England were identified as areas whereMiscanthusandSRCcould be grown, respectively, with favourable combinations of economic viability, carbon sequestration, high yield and positiveESbenefits. This study also suggests that not all prospective planting ofMiscanthusandSRCcan be allocated to agricultural land class (ALC) ALC 3 and ALC 4 and suitable areas ofALC5 are only minimally available. Beneficial impacts were found on 146 583 and 71 890 ha when plantingMiscanthusorSRC, respectively, under baseline planting conditions rising to 293 247 and 91 318 ha, respectively, under 2020 planting scenarios. The results provide an insight into the interplay between land availability, original land uses, bioenergy crop type and yield in determining overall positive or negative impacts of bioenergy cropping on ecosystems services and go some way towards developing a framework for quantifying widerESimpacts of this importantLUC.