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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support biodiversity in rural communities.

This Government is committed to restoring and protecting nature in rural communities through delivering our legally binding biodiversity targets on species abundance, species extinction and habitat creation and restoration. The Land Use Framework (LUF) shows we have enough land to deliver all our targets and outcomes but need to be more strategic in its use.

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) are being prepared across the whole of England to enable local areas to set priorities for biodiversity and environmental improvement and to propose where action is most needed.

Each strategy is being led by a local authority and co-developed with input from local communities, landowners, and stakeholders, ensuring that it reflects the unique environmental and social context of the local area, including rural areas.