Episode 148 - Natural England

This week we will be talking about Natural England. This episode content meets PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.

Resources from today's episode:

Websites:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england/about
• https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldnerc/99/9907.htm
• https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7f252ce5274a2e87db411e/ne-strategic-direction.pdf
• https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62bf03e1d3bf7f163f23dff9/natural-england-framework-document-2022.pdf

Maps & data: 

• https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-access-natural-englands-maps-and-data

Thank you for listening! Please follow me on Instagram @part3withme for weekly content and updates or contact me via email me at part3withme@outlook.com or on LinkedIn. 

Join me next week for more Part3 With Me time.

If you liked this episode please give it a rating to help reach more fellow Part3er's!

Transcript

Episode 148:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast. 

The show that helps part 3 students jump-start into their careers as qualified architects and also provides refresher episodes for practising architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week I will be talking about Natural England. Todays episode meets PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria.

Let’s start by looking at who Natural England is:

Natural England is the Government’s Adviser for the natural environment in England. They were established under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. Its general purpose, set out in section 2(1) of the Act, is to: 

“ensure that the natural environment is conserved, enhanced and managed for the benefit of present and future generations, thereby contributing to sustainable development.”  

Natural England’s vision, therefore, is ‘Thriving Nature for people and planet’ and they aim to achieve this through their mission ‘Building partnerships for Nature’s recovery’.

They consist of approximately 3000 members of staff with offices located throughout England. 

Their key powers and duties are to serve as:

• A Statutory Adviser: Providing advice to the government on natural environment matters
• A Regulator: Having regulatory functions established through various legislations
• A Designator: Whereby Natural England designates Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), and National Parks
• A Statutory Consultee: in relation to planning and development control issues. 
• And a Manager: By declaring and managing National Nature Reserves, directly overseeing about 140 of them
• Natural England will also contribute to the policy development process to ensure that Ministers, who are responsible for policy, are appropriately informed through independent and impartial advice and technical and delivery expertise. Where Natural England has a role in the development of Government policies, they must provide the Government with appropriate high quality advice, information and ‘intelligence’ based on Natural England’s technical expertise and informed by its ongoing partnership working with stakeholders, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs group and through frontline engagement with customers. 

In addition to their key duties and powers, Natural England also has the power to charge for their services subject to the Secretary of State’s consent and they can also charge a fee for their licences. Natural England also possesses enforcement powers under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the power to bring criminal proceedings either directly or through a person authorised to prosecute on Natural England’s behalf.

If at any point the government feels they require Natural England to take on additional functions, they have the power to do so on a permanent or temporary basis. 

Now, as mentioned in the previous episode on the Environment Act, there are a number of commitments set out in the Act which impact the duties and expectations of Natural England. 

These include: 

• a framing of how Natural England works with a number of key stakeholders to deliver the Nature Positive 2030 and the Nature Recovery Network (NRN) commitments 
• duties to support the formulation of Environmental Improvement Plans (EIPs) and Environmental Principles 
• a new role in the introduction of Biodiversity Net Gain into land use planning 
• duties to advise on the development of legally binding targets for air quality, water, biodiversity and waste with the intention of halting the decline in species abundance by 2030
• a central role in the development of Local Nature Recovery Strategies to inform and underpin the national Nature Recovery Network 
• a new power to prepare Species Conservation Strategies (SCS) for any species in England; and 
• a new power to prepare and publish Protected Sites Strategies to improve conservation and management of protected sites and manage impacts upon such sites 

Now, since the organisations formation: 

• They have seen the creation of the South Downs National Park 
• Laid the foundations for the extension of the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District National Parks.
• Developed a plan for an all-England coastal trail 
• Improved the condition of England’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest whilst designating over 40 new ones. 
• Helped to re-establish or increase threatened species 
• Delivered a step-change in the environmental enhancement of agricultural landscapes through Higher Level Stewardship
• And Reduced diffuse pollution from agriculture through Catchment Sensitive Farming 

To support their mission and the ambitions of the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, Natural England have set their Key Priorities for 2020-2025 to include:

• a well-managed Nature Recovery Network across land, water and sea, which creates and protects resilient ecosystems rich in wildlife and natural beauty, enjoyed by people and widely benefiting society
• people connected to the natural environment for their own and society’s wellbeing, enjoyment and prosperity
• Nature-based solutions contributing fully to tackling the climate change challenge and wider environmental hazards and threats
• improvements in the natural capital that drives sustainable economic growth, healthy food systems and prospering communities
• evidence and expertise being used by a broad range of partnerships, organisations and communities to achieve Nature recovery and enable effective regulation and accreditation
• being a values-led organisation that delivers excellent service standards to all partners, organisations and communities engaged in achieving Nature’s recovery

Specific for this year 2024-2025, Natural England’s Action Plan sets out their key goals this year as being to:

• improve the condition of the core nature recovery network – which is protected sites on land and sea
• deliver local nature recovery strategies (LNRS) and work with partners to develop plans and projects to deliver local nature recovery strategies ambitions for people and nature
• target use of regulation and advice on land and sea to create new habitat and improve protected sites condition
• green development and infrastructure
• enable more people to connect with nature
• develop and target delivery of farm advice
• target monitoring to underpin delivery
• develop their capability and focus on people’s development and wellbeing

Therefore, to realise and assist with delivering these priorities Natural England has set out, they have put together a Strategic Plan to help drive change and bring about a natural environment, on land and at sea, which is healthy, properly functioning and resilient, and recognised as the foundation for sustainable economic growth, prospering communities and personal wellbeing. Their three themes, therefore, which underpin their change include:

1. Promoting Innovation - through development of new markets for ’natural capital‘ and in biodiversity offsetting, bringing this sense of innovation to the national programmes they deliver and to the key services they provide
2. Working on their partnerships - by utilising a new three principle approach - by not always needing to lead, looking for partnerships beyond their traditional stakeholders, and recognising that partnership means that not all parties can always secure all their goals. Natural England will look to their partnerships to help them find the ’best owned’ rather than the perfect solution. They aim to work with all sectors from those who own and manage the land, to local businesses, volunteers, conservation NGOs, local government and local people and they will redraw, where appropriate, the boundaries between what they do and what their partners do, and work always for shared agendas and consensus. Natural England specifically aims to find new ways of working with partners in the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs network, especially the Environment Agency, in order to secure the best overall environmental outcomes from the public sector’s investment in the natural environment, and ensure that customers enjoy joined-up and seamless a service from the government as possible.
3. And the third theme will be looking at Local Delivery - aiming for Natural England to share their local expertise and knowledge of the natural environment with local communities. 

These three key themes will build on the foundations of their success to date, and continued commitments to science and evidence, to national standards, to customers, and to efficient business processes.

In addition to focusing on key internal themes to ensure effective organisational functioning, Natural England has outlined four key areas in its evolving business model, defined by legislation and their statutory purpose. These areas will guide its external work and approach to society and the environment, helping the organisation fulfill its responsibilities under the Environment Act.

The first key area being:

1. Protecting and building understanding of landscapes and geodiversity. To achieve this, they have set Long-term and Medium-term aims which revolve around:

• Strengthening connections between people and landscapes while emphasising the value of protected areas and geodiversity.
• Using National Character Area profiles and monitoring to guide local environmental actions.
• Refining protected landscape boundaries and expand recognition of key geological sites.

1. The second, looks at Reversing the decline in terrestrial biodiversity. To achieve this, they have set Long-term and Medium-term aims which revolve around:

• Supporting a resilient, diverse natural environment that benefits communities, ensures essential services, and inspires through exemplary reserves.
• Improves wildlife site conditions, streamline processes, strengthen partnerships, and integrate species conservation.

3. Then the third key focus area look at Restoring marine biodiversity. To achieve this, they have set Long-term and Medium-term aims which revolve around:

• Supporting the establishment and management of a well-managed Marine Protected Area Network.
• Providing evidence-based advice and fostering partnerships to improve marine conservation and integration with user activities.

4. And lastly, their fourth focus area relates to Promoting and encouraging access to and understanding of the natural environment. To achieve this, they have set Long-term and Medium-term aims which revolve around:

• Driving investment in access facilities based on local needs, ensuring wider use, and enhancing understanding of the natural environment's value.
• Implementing a new management model for National Trails, advance the England Coast Path, build evidence on public use of natural spaces, and increase accessibility.

To support and realise these ambitions, Natural England has a range of tools to support the delivery of the core environmental outcomes which are explicit in their purpose. Among these are their role as statutory advisor to the planning system, their work as a regulator in the natural environment, and delivering their incentives through agri-environment schemes.

In their role as a statutory advisor to the planning system both on land and at sea they support sustainable development, and avoid unnecessary conflict between the built or planned environment and nature. As such, they have made improvements in making their advice services more accessible and easier to use, becoming more efficient and removing delay and uncertainty for developers and planning authorities.

Then as the regulator in the natural environment, principally through licensing for wildlife management and as the consenting authority for operations on protected sites, they aim to find ways to refine regulatory processes and to simplify and streamline advice and guidance, while creating a robust regime that promotes compliance.

And lastly, they will deliver the agri-environment schemes that support good land management practice by farmers and other landowners, and which enable improvement in the condition of many protected sites and of the wider countryside. Following reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, these schemes are more closely targeted to ensure that they secure the maximum environmental benefit.

To close off today’s episode, I just wanted to share a beneficial service Natural England provides that you may find useful for your projects or even when responding to exam or coursework scenarios relating to environmental matters. As part of their services, Natural England provides geographic information as:

• data for download to a geographic information system (GIS)
• And interactive maps

Planners, developers, land managers and academics can use the data to support:

• development proposals
• planning decisions
• And environmental projects

Partners and contractors working on behalf of Natural England can also use its maps and data to support their projects. 

Natural England publishes its data under the Open Government Licence allowing anyone to use public sector data for any use without requiring permission to use the data or having to pay but users must include a copyright statement to acknowledge the data source. 

You can find Natural England’s maps and data on several portals for download, including:

• Defra’s Magic map application, that holds maps and data on the natural environment, such as habitats and species types, designated sites, landscape types, and environmental schemes.
• Open Data Geoportal which gives access to a wide range of geographical products 
• And Data.Gov.Uk, which publishes Natural Englands datasets 

To access these I have provided a link in the episode notes that provides links to all three portals.

To sum up what I discussed today:

• Natural England is the Government's adviser on the natural environment, tasked with conserving, enhancing, and managing it for future generations. Their mission is "Building partnerships for Nature's recovery," and they are responsible for various roles including advising the government, regulating, and managing protected areas.
• They serve as statutory advisers, regulators, and designators of protected areas such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), and National Parks. They also manage National Nature Reserves and provide independent advice on environmental policies.
• Natural England is involved in the Nature Positive 2030 and Nature Recovery Network, and their duties include supporting the development of environmental improvement plans, biodiversity net gain in land use planning, and advising on air, water, biodiversity, and waste targets.
• Their key priorities for 202-2025 include managing a Nature Recovery Network, promoting nature-based solutions to climate change, improving natural capital, and ensuring evidence-based decision-making for nature recovery through partnerships with various organisations.
• And they provide geographic data and interactive maps for use in environmental planning and development. This data is available for free under the Open Government Licence, supporting developers, planners, and environmental projects through portals like Defra’s Magic map application and the Open Data Geoportal.