Recommendation 22

HM Government Accepted

Planning policy is devolved in the UK and the question and answer below relates to policies in England. (22a) Establishing a Nature Recovery Network (NRN)—an expanded and better connected network of places that are richer in wildlife, more resilient to climate change and provide a range of benefits for people—is a major commitment in the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan. Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) have been designed from the start to support the establishment of a NRN. They will identify priorities and opportunities for nature recovery and help drive investment and action to expand, improve and connect habitats. LNRSs will work in conjunction with other policies and funding streams, such as biodiversity net gain, and will be supported by the NRN Partnership to help bring people and organisations together to affect change on the ground. preparing a LNRS and statutory guidance on what one must contain after Royal Assent of the Environment Bill. It is these two documents that will, between them, help to explain in more detail how LNRS’ will support the NRN. Once these documents have been published Government will review the existing documentation to see what amendments might be necessary for clear communication of our policy intent. (22b) Environment Bill to ensure that development results in environmental improvement rather than merely preventing harm. We will further embed this approach through updates to national planning policy, to ensure that environmental considerations feature fully in all planning decision making. We are clear that we want to capitalise on the potential of LNRS as we seek to improve environmental outcomes and make the planning system clearer, by ensuring that LNRS will input to plan-making. Further detail will be set out in the government’s response to the Planning for the Future consultation which will be published shortly. (22c) We agree with the Committee’s vision for the role that LNRSs will play in joining up biodiversity net gain, the planning system and future schemes that reward the delivery of environmental benefits. To this list of key measures we would add a range of other activity to use ‘nature-based solutions’ to address wider environmental challenges, such as tree planting to sequester carbon and wetland creation to improve water quality, mitigate flood risk and help adaptation to climate change. The duty on all public authorities to “have regard” to relevant LNRSs will also be an important new driver of activity. We have amended the Environment Bill to include statutory guidance for local planning authorities to explain how they should have regard to LNRSs, to embed strategies for the environment and nature’s recovery into their planning systems. Government’s vision is that, by drawing together this range of activity for nature and the use of nature-based solutions, the public, private and voluntary sectors can work together to greatly increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the action that we take on the ground. The role that LNRSs will play in biodiversity net gain is via the biodiversity metric. The metric provides an uplift of 15% to the calculation of units generated by habitat creation in locations identified by LNRSs. This will provide an incentive for habitat creation in these locations but without precluding developers from pursuing other approaches. LNRSs will also guide funding provided through the Local Nature Recovery scheme under our future farming programme. environmental benefits are both areas of active policy development. The government has committed publicly to aligning LNRSs with both policies, and is developing the detail of how this will work in practice. (22d) The government’s planning reforms are being developed in accordance with the principles in the Environment Bill to ensure that development results in environmental improvement rather than merely preventing harm. Defra and MHCLG will continue to work closely to ensure that environmental and planning policies work together to improve the environment within a generation, on which further detail will be set out shortly in the government’s response to the Planning for the Future consultation. and international environmental commitments, including publishing a Nature Recovery Green Paper later this year. (22e) See response to recommendation 5 and 20c.