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What is a Local Nature Recovery Strategy?

Overview​

A Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) is a spatial strategy — introduced by the Environment Act 2021 — that maps, for a particular area of England, where action for nature would do the most good. Each strategy is prepared by a "responsible authority" (typically an upper-tier local authority or combined authority) and covers the whole of England when the mosaic of strategies is complete.

An LNRS has two core outputs: a statement of biodiversity priorities for the area, and a local habitat map showing areas of importance and areas of opportunity for nature recovery.

Why it matters for BNG​

LNRS is the connective tissue between local nature planning and the BNG metric:

  • It is the emerging basis for the high tier of strategic significance — habitat delivered in an LNRS-identified location can earn the ×1.15 multiplier.
  • It therefore steers where off-site gains go, aligning private BNG investment with a public, democratically-set spatial plan for nature.
  • Its habitat maps are a genuinely new opportunity dataset — not a constraint layer, but a "where should we act?" layer.

How it works — England​

  1. A responsible authority prepares the LNRS for its area, in collaboration with local partners and Natural England.
  2. It publishes a statement of biodiversity priorities and a local habitat map (areas of particular importance + areas where measures could have the greatest benefit).
  3. Planning and BNG decisions reference the LNRS — most concretely through the strategic significance multiplier in the metric.

Strategies have been rolling out area by area, so at any moment coverage and maturity vary across England. Whether an LNRS applies — and how developed its mapping is — depends on the specific responsible authority.

Rollout watch

LNRS coverage is being built up across England rather than switched on everywhere at once. Always check the current status of the LNRS for the relevant area before relying on it for strategic significance.

Nation differences​

LNRS is an England instrument of the Environment Act 2021. The other nations pursue spatial nature strategy through their own frameworks (e.g. Scotland's and Wales' nature-recovery and area-based approaches) rather than an identically-defined LNRS.

  • LNRS Local Habitat Maps — the spatial output of each strategy, and the basis for the strategic significance high tier.

WildStack's take​

WildStack's take

LNRS is the most interesting thing to happen to nature data in England in years — a public, spatial, opportunity-focused layer, not just another constraint polygon — and it is also the most uneven. Its usefulness in any given place is entirely a function of how seriously the responsible authority took the mapping. Where done well, it turns BNG's strategic significance multiplier into real spatial planning for nature; where done thinly, it risks becoming a shape on a map that unlocks a ×1.15 without much ecological logic behind it. Our advice: read the LNRS for the area before siting off-site gains, treat its habitat map as an opportunity finder rather than gospel, and check its maturity — a young LNRS and a mature one are very different evidence.

Official sources​

Last reviewed​

5 July 2026. Revisit as LNRS publication progresses, and if the statutory role of LNRS in planning or in the metric is strengthened.

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