Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) have been created under the 2021 Environment Act as a holistic spatial strategy for nature and environmental improvement. 

The natural environment of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes is the foundation of our health, prosperity, identity and heritage. Milton Keynes includes both the urban landscape of the city, its form and layout reflecting its origins as a late–20th century planned new town and its continued growth with major developments beyond the original new town boundary, and the rural area beyond, to the northeast. Nature is declining at an unprecedented rate, with 41% of species having declined in the UK since 1970. These include some of our best-known wildlife such as skylarks, yellowhammers, water voles, hares, hedgehogs, frogs, and toads. To address the alarming declines of nature, a bold new strategy – the Local Nature Recovery Strategy – paves the way for nature’s recovery

Buckinghamshire County Council was assigned Responsible Authority for the LNRS for Bucks and MK, one of 48 in total covering the whole of England.  The Strategy was locally led by the Natural Environment partnership (NEP) and developed collaboratively through engagement with a wide breadth of stakeholders, including government agencies, local planning authorities, landowners, farmers, charities and non-governmental organisations, community groups, utilities, transport, nature charities, health, education, businesses and developer sector representatives, to establish shared priorities for nature recovery and wider environmental goals.  

The Local Nature Recovery Strategy is specific and tailored to Bucks and Milton Keynes and has two main outputs:

• A local habitat map.
• A written statement of biodiversity priorities.

The LNRS provides a set of agreed priorities for nature recovery, with measures to deliver these.  As a spatially framed strategy for nature, it focuses action to where its most needed and/or where it will deliver the greatest benefits.

It will do this through:

• Planning: The LNRS will have a statutory role in influencing all tiers of planning, with the express requirement that strategic development, minerals and waste, neighbourhood and local plans must all take account of any local nature recovery strategy that relates to all or part of the local planning authority’s area.
• Development management: The LNRS will highlight where developers can most effectively fulfil their mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain duties from Jan 2024, which requires them to deliver a 10% uplift in biodiversity.  Whilst in some cases, BNG will be delivered onsite as a designed component of new developments, others may be better sought offsite, and the LNRS will pinpoint where the most biodiversity gains can meaningfully be achieved through nature recovery actions.
• Nature-based solutions (NbS): These are where we work with nature to address societal challenges – such as restoring or planting woodland to sequester carbon, building leaky dams or ponds to regulate water flow and manage flooding in times of increased rainfall, or planting trees in urban environments to reduce ambient temperatures and improve air quality. The LNRS aims to identify where nature recovery action can also deliver NbS to the greatest benefit of the county.

See the full details read the Local Nature Recovery Strategy