Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what budget has been allocated for the delivery of local nature recovery plans; which agency will have responsibility for allocating that budget; and which agency or agencies will be responsible for delivering the plans at the local level.

The Government has committed to funding all new burdens on Local Authorities arising from the Environment Act. This includes those relating to the preparation of Local Nature Recovery Strategies.

Defra is currently working through spending plans for the next three years. Further announcements concerning specific funding arrangements for Local Nature Recovery Strategies will be made in due course.

As set out in our consultation, Local Nature Recovery Strategies: how to prepare and what to include, which is now closed, Local Nature Recovery Strategies are intended to inform a number of policy areas and will therefore be delivered through a variety of mechanisms operating in a complementary way. These could include mandatory biodiversity net gain, environmental land management schemes, the strengthened NERC duty on public bodies; and use by local planning authorities, for example in informing the preparation of local plans.