Defra Statutory Guidance for Natural England on Regional Planning and Associated Matters (March 2007) – Natural England Statement
This statement sets out how Natural England will engage with partners and policies at a regional and sub-regional level. It is published in response to guidance published on March 2007 by the Department of the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Engaging with partners and stakeholders at the regional and sub regional level is an important part of our work and fundamental to the delivery of our wide-ranging objectives. As an independent, non-departmental body, however, we will need to be flexible in how and to what extent we engage with individual regional plans or programmes. We have limited resources for this work and we will need to manage them to the best advantage.
We will improve understanding of the natural environment by promoting and explaining our research and data to a wide range of audiences. This will include the publication of the 'State of the Natural Environment Report' at a national level with regional data available via the Natural England website. We will publish our full range of research reports and publications on the internet and pro- actively seek platforms to present and discuss our research with relevant stakeholders and wider audiences as appropriate.
We will work with regional observatories, regional assemblies, local records centres and others to monitor and report on the state of the natural environment in each region.
We will work closely with regional decision makers and key partners such as regional assemblies, regional development agencies and government offices to help shape a wide range of regional policies and programmes. We will play a major role in the preparation of each Regional Spatial Strategy, and in future Integrated Regional Strategies.
We will fulfil our statutory responsibilities in relation to Regional Spatial Strategies, Local Development Frameworks, Sustainability Appraisals, Sustainable Environmental Assessments and Appropriate Assessment of plans related to international and European sites. We will prioritise our wider engagement in plans to those where there are greatest risks to our interests or opportunities for environmental enhancement. (Annex 1) We will concentrate on where Natural England can add most value to the process with effort concentrated at the earliest stages.
We have identified a common core of regional strategies and frameworks with which we will engage - listed below. We shall exercise discretion over the degree of actual involvement based on our statutory duties and the criteria set out above and in Annex 1. In practice we expect our contacts and engagement to be much wider than the core list, across public, private and voluntary sectors. We will manage our resources available to this work within the context of our published priorities.
We will engage with planmakers and stakeholders in each region to ensure that they know what to expect from Natural England. Each region will hold an annual stakeholders event at which our strategic direction, and regional priorities will be discussed, and feedback sought. Other opportunities such as Rural Affairs Forums, Regional Sustainability Fora, Rural Delivery Framework groups will allow us to communicate with our partners
We will publish for each of our regions a schedule of plans, strategies and frameworks they expect to engage with based on published criteria. We will review and update these schedules and make the information available on our internet. Such schedules will not prevent us from engaging in other issues if the need arises.
We will work closely with the Environment Agency and Forestry Commission to ensure that the interests of the natural environment are effectively represented at sub-regional and local level. This particularly applies to Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Area Agreements. We will prepare a strategy to set out our criteria for engagement at sub regional and local activity. This will build on Defra’s work on 'Priority for Places'.
We will pursue opportunities to align our funding with Local Area Agreements. We will concentrate on those activities where:
- the additionality can be clearly demonstrated,
- our Strategic Direction can be delivered through this mechanism, and,
- there are significant opportunities to deliver benefits for, or have the potential to develop innovative approaches towards, the natural environment.
We will monitor performance influencing regional planning and policies and publish achievements in our Annual Report. We expect a regional review of performance to form a regular part of the annual stakeholder events.
List of core regional ( and sub-regional) plans and strategies with which Natural England will engage. *
Regional Spatial Strategy (successor Integrated Regional Strategy)
RDPE Implementation Plan
Regional Economic Strategy (successor Integrated Regional Strategy)
Local Development Frameworks
Local Area Agreements
Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy
Growth Points/Eco Towns
Regional Biodiversity Strategy
River Basin Plans
Flood Risk and Coastal Plans
Green Infrastructure Plans
Regional Forestry Framework
* identified by regions as being ‘core’ to their work
Annex 1: Criteria for prioritising Natural England engagement in regional ( and sub-regional) plans and strategies
- Poses risks to the integrity of international and European and nationally designated sites and areas (meeting statutory responsibilities relating to SA/SEA and Appropriate Assessment of plans).
- Where there are significant opportunities to deliver benefits for the natural environment.
- Are developing or have the potential to develop innovative approaches towards the natural environment.
In addition, within the context of our published priorities, regions will draw on their evidence base to inform spatial targeting of resources to support the delivery of regional priorities for the natural environment that have been identified in strategic regional plans and frameworks.
Links to the nine regional schedules are set out below. While all schedules are consistent with the national statement, each is expressed in a slightly different way to reflect regional circumstances. Core strategies have been omitted where no significant engagement is planned because of the stage in its lifecycle.
East of England
East Midlands
North East
North West
South East
South West
