Local nature recovery strategies and what they do

A local nature recovery strategy is a spatial plan for nature, prepared under Part 6 of the Environment Act 2021, and it matters to applicants for one concrete reason: it changes the value of biodiversity units. Habitat created in a place the strategy identifies as a priority scores higher in the statutory metric than the same habitat created somewhere the strategy is silent about. That is a direct financial effect, and it is why planning consultants need to read the strategy for their area rather than filing it under policy background.

The strategies do other things too, and one thing they do not do is form part of the development plan.

The duty in the Environment Act 2021

Part 6 of the Act requires local nature recovery strategies to be prepared for the whole of England, with the country divided into strategy areas and a responsible authority appointed for each. Responsible authorities are county councils, unitary authorities, combined authorities, National Park authorities and, in London, the Greater London Authority.

The Act sets out what each strategy contains and how it is prepared, with procedural detail in regulations made in 2023 covering consultation, publication and review. Supporting authorities, which include the district councils and other public bodies in the area, have to cooperate with the responsible authority.

Preparation began after the Act, and the first strategies were published from 2024 onwards with coverage building since. Check whether your area has a published strategy, a draft out for consultation or nothing yet, because the weight you can attach to it depends entirely on that.

What a strategy contains

Two components, and they work together.

A statement of biodiversity priorities describes the area, its habitats and species, the opportunities for recovery and the practical measures that would deliver them. Read the measures rather than the vision. They are the part that a planning application can align with.

A local habitat map shows protected sites and other areas of particular importance for biodiversity, together with areas where measures could be taken to improve habitat connectivity or create new habitat. The second category is the one that affects development, because it is where the strategy is saying that new habitat in this location would do the most good.

The mapping resolution varies between strategy areas. Some map at a fine grain with named opportunity areas, others use broad zones. That difference matters when you are arguing that a specific field falls within a priority area, so download the mapping rather than relying on a screenshot in a committee report.

How it interacts with biodiversity net gain

The statutory biodiversity metric applies a strategic significance multiplier to habitat units. Habitat in an area identified in a local strategy as a priority attracts the highest multiplier. Habitat in a location that is ecologically sensible but not identified attracts a middle value. Habitat with no strategic justification attracts the lowest.

The practical consequences are worth spelling out.

On-site habitat creation in a priority area delivers more units for the same works, which can be the difference between meeting the ten per cent requirement on site and buying off-site units.

Off-site delivery has a stronger case when it lands in a priority area, and habitat banks increasingly market their locations on that basis.

Where you claim the higher multiplier, justify it with the strategy reference and the map extract. An unsupported claim of high strategic significance is one of the first things an authority's ecologist checks in a Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment. That assessment has to be completed by a competent person under the Environment Act 2021 regime, and the biodiversity gain plan is approved by the local planning authority, so the claim will be tested by someone qualified to test it.

Weight in plan making and in decisions

Here is the distinction that gets muddled. A local nature recovery strategy is not a development plan document. It is not examined, it is not adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and section 38(6) of that Act does not apply to it.

What gives it weight is a combination of three things. The strengthened biodiversity duty in the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, as amended by the Environment Act 2021, requires public authorities to consider what action they can take to conserve and enhance biodiversity and to have regard to any relevant strategy. National policy expects plans to take account of the strategies when identifying opportunities for net gains. And the metric gives the strategy direct effect through the multiplier.

So in a decision the strategy operates as a material consideration, and its weight depends on its status, its specificity about the site in question and what the local plan says about it. In plan making its weight is greater, because emerging plans are expected to reflect it in their green infrastructure and habitat policies.

Do not overstate it in a planning statement. Saying that a proposal conflicts with the strategy and must therefore be refused is wrong. Saying that a proposal delivers habitat identified as a priority in the published strategy, and that this attracts the higher strategic significance multiplier and supports the net gain case, is right and useful.

How to check the strategy for your site

Five steps, in order.

1. Identify the strategy area your site falls in and the responsible authority for it.
2. Establish the status of the strategy: published, draft, in preparation or not yet started.
3. Download the local habitat map and locate the site on it, recording the date of the check and the map version.
4. Read the priorities and measures relevant to the habitats present on or adjacent to the site.
5. Check how the local planning authority is applying the strategy, which is usually set out in a validation note, a biodiversity net gain guidance note or a policy in an emerging plan.

Datasets are gradually appearing on the national planning data platform, which will make step three easier over time. Until then the responsible authority's own publication is the primary source, and it is the one to cite.

What to include in an ecology chapter

Keep it short and specific. Name the strategy area and responsible authority, state the status and publication date of the strategy, identify which priorities and measures are relevant to the site, and show the site on an extract of the local habitat map.

Then link the scheme to the strategy in the terms the metric uses. Which habitats are being created or improved, whether their location corresponds to a mapped opportunity area, what strategic significance category has been entered into the metric and on what basis, and how the habitat will be managed for the 30 year period the regime requires.

A Green Infrastructure Plan is the right place to show how on-site habitat connects to the wider network described in the strategy, particularly where the map identifies connectivity as the priority rather than habitat area. And the baseline for all of it comes from the Preliminary Ecological Appraisal, which councils usually expect a suitably qualified author to prepare with professional review strongly advised.

One honest uncertainty. How much weight decision-makers will give the strategies once national development management policies arrive under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 is not yet clear, and practice varies between authorities today. Treat the metric multiplier as the reliable effect and the policy weight as something to argue.

Updates of this kind are gathered on the planning law timeline. For the related reforms, see the notes on biodiversity net gain rules for small sites and on local plan reform under the 2023 Act.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.