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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the ability of local authorities to deliver their Local Nature Recovery Strategies.

The Government recognises the importance of having sufficient capacity in Local Authorities to prepare and help deliver Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) and has committed to funding all new burdens on local authorities from the Environment Act 2021.

We have undertaken assessments of capacity requirements for LNRSs alongside other key policies, including Biodiversity Net Gain. Our five LNRS pilots especially have informed our understanding of resource requirements for local authorities, the types of skills, as well as the amount of time required to prepare LNRSs. We have published these findings in a lessons learned report.

In addition, we have worked with local authority representative groups, and eNGOs to understand local authorities' current readiness.

LNRSs are intended to inform a number of policy areas and will therefore be delivered through a variety of mechanisms and organisations operating in a complementary way. These could include mandatory biodiversity net gain, environmental land management schemes, the strengthened NERC duty on public bodies, private funding streams and use by local planning authorities, for example, in informing the preparation of local plans.