FAQs

The draft West Yorkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy will be one of 48 spatial mapping and planning tools. Together, these will cover the whole of England and help to create a Nature Recovery Network of wildlife-rich places. This has been set out in the Environment Act 2021. The aim is to expand, improve and connect these wildlife-rich places across our towns, cities, countryside and coast. This will help us to deal with three of the biggest challenges we face today: biodiversity loss, climate change and wellbeing.

Nature is collapsing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. Globally we have lost 60 per cent of wild animals and up to 76 per cent of insects since 1970. Nearly 2,000 species have already been lost from Yorkshire in the last 200 years, and a further 3,000 are threatened by extinction. The decline in nature matters to all of us because of the vital role that wildlife and nature play in supporting our wellbeing, society and economy. Nature provides the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and many of the resources we need to survive and maintain our quality of life. Local Nature Recovery Strategies are powerful new tools to help reverse this decline.

You can find out more by visiting the Gov.uk website here.

You can also watch David Attenborough explain what a Nature Recovery Network is here.

Each Local Nature Recovery Strategy will coordinate and focus practical action for nature in ways, and in places, where this will have the most impact. The Government’s overall ambition is for Local Nature Recovery Strategies to help public, private and voluntary sectors work more effectively together for nature’s recovery.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority received some government funding to prepare the strategy. This national funding has been used alongside local resources to prepare and agree the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for West Yorkshire.

The draft Local Nature Recovery Strategy is evidence-based, locally led and collaboratively produced, with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority acting as the Responsible Authority for its development. We worked closely with supporting authorities and engaged with vital key stakeholders throughout our region. A list of these groups can be found in our engagement report here.

The West Yorkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy mapping approach was set and reviewed by a core mapping group of local and ecological experts. Each measure was mapped individually, such that the method is tailored to each measure. The process was broadly as follows:

1. Identify suitable base sites. We had access to a range of base site data, such as the Priority Habitats Inventory, Local Habitat Networks for West Yorkshire districts, or Ordnance Survey MasterMap Topography site boundaries (kindly provided by Nature North). Unsuitable site types were removed (rocky sites aren’t suitable for woodland creation, for example).

2. Choose suitable base sites based on the focus of the measure (or ‘primary selector’). The base sites used reflect the spatial focus of the measure. For example, for measures to create grassland habitat, only sites that intersected grassland opportunity layers or are near to existing habitat were selected. These primary selectors include habitat opportunity layers such as the Natural England Habitat Networks.

3. Collect further contextual information. Sites might be more, or less, strategic depending on other factors. Measures to enhance existing woodland might be considered more strategic if that woodland contains ancient or veteran trees, or is in an area with poor Tree Equity. Measures are more strategic if they help make existing nature sites bigger, better or more joined up (the ‘Lawtonian’ principles).

4. Remove sites that intersect with ‘hard constraints’. Some measures cannot be mapped in certain areas. For example, most measures cannot be mapped to designated sites (such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest). Measures involving habitat creation cannot be mapped onto existing important habitat (such as the Priority Habitats Inventory and the Local Habitat Network), or onto Built-Up Areas (apart from measures in the Built Environment Theme).

5. Refine sites based on strategic priority. DEFRA recommends that 35-45 per cent of the strategy area should be mapped as measures, to ensure that action focuses on areas it will have the greatest positive impact. The contextual information (above) helped us to do this.

The starting point for site allocations (where development has not yet started) is the same as for all other sites (see mapping approach FAQ). That is, the mapping methodology does not attempt to predict what might or might not happen in the future and ‘washes over’ these locations. The Local Nature Recovery Strategy thus provides more information for planning authorities, to help them make their own evidence-based decisions locally, but it does not give any level of protection or prevent alternative uses of the land.

For larger site allocations, the habitat map could offer useful information about how best to incorporate nature into future development proposals and deliver the best quality urban green space.

The map is a ‘best endeavour’ desk-based exercise, undertaken in good faith and using the best available data and local insight, but subject to error beyond our control. We continue to work closely with local planning authorities and other stakeholders to increase its accuracy. For example, if redevelopment has already started, this could turn a site into an existing ‘hard constraint’, where nature recovery is no longer possible, and the site will be excised from the habitat map altogether.

It is important to recognise that the mapping is a desktop survey only and is based on the best data available to us at the time of mapping. We welcome comments to help us map more accurately to real life. The map is not a substitute for on-the-ground site-by-site assessment. 

After the public consultation, we will review all the new information available to us and create a final version of the Strategy to be published in 2026.

Local Nature Recovery Strategies provide spatial frameworks that reflect local ecological priorities, community aspirations, and opportunities for habitat enhancement. They have been designed to fit into the planning system in several ways.

Under the Environment Act, local planning authorities must consider how they can both conserve and enhance biodiversity. The Act specifically states that all public bodies must take account of Local Nature Recovery Strategies in their decision-making.

The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the government’s planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied; it requires local plans to protect and enhance biodiversity. Local Nature Recovery Strategies provide an evidence base to inform how a local plan interprets existing policy within the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

They will directly influence local plans by providing evidence of where areas are important for biodiversity, where nature plays a particularly important role locally for people, which areas should be protected from development, and where investment in nature could help with issues such as flood risk, water quality and access to nature. This will help local planning authorities to make decisions.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is also currently making its way through parliament.

Statutory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requires developers to provide a 10 per cent uplift in the amount of biodiversity after any development, so that development projects give back to nature more than they take. Local Nature Recovery Strategies identify where offsite BNG would have the most positive impact for nature, and incentives within the BNG system are designed to encourage this.

For the purposes of BNG in the planning process, mappable measures will be eligible for the high strategic significance multiplier in the statutory biodiversity metric only if: 

• delivery of the specific measure/s that apply to that location are clearly included in the BNG assessment/report submitted as part of the planning application, and
• the appointed ecological consultant justifies (to the satisfaction of the local planning authority) that the outcomes are highly likely genuinely to result in an appropriate biodiversity uplift for habitat, hedgerow or watercourse biodiversity units.

The local habitat map shows areas currently designated for nature conservation (‘areas of particular importance for biodiversity’). It also shows areas where funding and efforts for nature should focus (‘areas that could become of particular importance’). 

It is important to note that the Local Nature Recovery Strategy does not:

• give any level of protection
• prevent alternative uses of the land
• give permission to create habitat or alter land use without consulting relevant specialists, statutory consultees, or obtaining appropriate permissions.

Inform funding applications 

The Strategy can help make areas of land more valuable for nature; areas that have poor yield due to soil quality could, for example, be ideal for nature recovery. You can use the Strategy to help apply for funding, particularly for more spatially targeted action, including Landscape Recovery projects, and to help diversify your land-use.

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)

Developers have an incentive to use the Local Nature Recovery Strategy map when choosing where to deliver their off-site BNG units. If the mapping methodology results in your land being included on the map, you may be able to benefit from BNG. (See BNG FAQ.) 

A mapped measure is the action that would have the greatest benefit for nature in that place. It does not mean that the landowner has given permission for habitat creation or enhancement. Any actions to create or enhance habitat should be taken only after consulting with landowners, relevant authorities and ecological experts.

While the consultation is live, please comment on the map to share your views.

Mapped measures neither direct, nor rule out, other uses for any given site. Instead, they provide additional insight to those making decisions about land use (such as plan-making, development proposals, agricultural land, private estates, business sites). The Local Nature Recovery Strategy means that developers and other end-users can ensure that land use in West Yorkshire contributes positively to environmental outcomes, with decisions based on the best available evidence.

There are three main reasons why our mapping methodology results in areas not being mapped:

The area is not suitable for a measure. This is likely to be because our mapping methodology hasn’t identified it as appropriate. Please see ‘How did you do the mapping?’

The area is not considered strategic. Our mapping focuses on areas where there is strong evidence that the measures are most needed and will have the greatest overall impact. Some sites may indeed be highly suitable for a particular measure, but have been excluded from the map this time because other sites are more strategically important. We are keeping records of less strategic sites and will look again at these for future versions of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

The data we have used to map the measure is slightly out of date, or incorrect. Mapping is done with the best available data, but it is a desktop exercise. This means it is imperfect; our data sources sometimes won’t quite reflect reality. If a mapped measure doesn’t look right, please let us know in the comment forms. This is why permission from landowners and site-by-site assessment by experts is essential before undertaking any of the actions recommended in the measures.

You can add comments asking for sites to be added or removed, using the comment forms linked to each measure. Please review the ‘How to comment for consultation’ page linked in the map. If you provide supporting evidence or reasoning to explain why land is suitable/unsuitable for a measure, this will help us to understand your comment as we prepare the final published map.

Please email naturerecovery@westyorks-ca.gov.uk and ask to be added to our newsletter and contact list. This will be the easiest way to keep updated with opportunities.

The strategy will be published in 2026. The strategy must, by law, be reviewed every three to 10 years (from March 2023).

We are working with partners and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on how to turn the strategy into action. Please email naturerecovery@westyorks-ca.gov.uk and ask to be added to our newsletter and contact list.