Protected Sites Strategies for local authorities

Some of our thinking from the first year of work on the Natural England PSS project is outlined in our blog.

A PSS could help make Local Plan evidence gathering easier, especially Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) and Sustainability Appraisal. LPAs can not adopt Local Plans unless they can demonstrate ‘no adverse impact on the integrity’ of European sites through their HRA. A PSS could help make the Local Plan process and examination easier and less open to challenge, plus result in resource savings for the local authority and developers by:

• enabling mitigation of impacts on protected site(s) from the plan that can best be mitigated via a strategic scheme; and
• helping address non-development impacts on the site (see also below).

The hope is that PSS will also enable mitigation to be developed in partnership, help find novel solutions to the issues, and drive timely action.  

The Nature Restoration Fund approach could streamline the Local Plan process in a similar way.

Where high levels of development are proposed that raise issues for protected sites, local authorities will need to find solutions to deliver housing targets, deliver essential infrastructure, enable economic development and meet their other priorities. They do not have control over NSIPs or existing industry and they want to make sure protected areas are safeguarded.  

A PSS is likely to also be helpful in circumstances where Natural England's advice changes based on updated evidence and identifies development impacts on a protected site that are best mitigated through a strategic approach, e.g. nutrients, recreation, water resources. In these circumstances, planning application approvals for relevant development, most usually housing, will usually be halted until a mitigation solution is in place.  

At present, local authorities are usually left to work out what mitigation should be to address impacts. The hope is that PSS will:  

• enable mitigation to be developed in partnership;
• help find novel solutions to the issues;
• drive timely action;
• save time and money for the local authority and developers; and
• ensure sites are safeguarded for permissions beyond the local authority’s control.

The Nature Restoration Fund approach could also be used to address this type of issue.

The hope is that a PSS will mean that a local authority’s decision-making (Local Plan or planning development management) is less likely to be legally challenged by a third party (e.g. Judicial Review) on the mitigation of protected sites impacts that are best addressed through a strategic approach. This is because a PSS should clearly set out what mitigation is needed for the various impacts on the site, based on appropriate evidence.

Where a planning application or Local Plan is subject to legal challenge, relevant planning application approvals or the Local Plan are held up until the legal judgement is available. There is uncertainty for development or plans in other local authority areas with similar issues until legal issues are resolved. This creates delays and undermines developer confidence and therefore impacts on delivering housing targets, key infrastructure, Local Plans, etc.

The above is also likely to be true for the Nature Restoration Fund approach.

In many cases issues for protected sites can only be addressed through work with multiple stakeholders (and across local authority functions/teams), especially for impacts beyond those arising from new development. Just addressing the issues from new development through planning doesn’t address any existing issues, nor issues arising from non-development sources. Local authorities are keen to ensure that it’s not just new development that bears the brunt of addressing protected sites issues.  

A PSS is seen as a route to enable and facilitate partnership working that can enable a united front to be developed around solutions for the environment. It could help collaboration across administrative boundaries and from actors outside planning, such as farmers, water companies and national infrastructure bodies. A PSS could also create environmental headroom/resilience by addressing impacts from other sources. 

Functionally linked land is a term often used to describe areas of land or sea occurring outside a designated site which are considered to be critical to, or necessary for, the ecological or behavioural functions of a qualifying feature for which a European Site has been designated. For example, land that SPA birds frequently feed on or trees that SAC bats roost in.

Where a site has lots of functionally linked habitat, especially where impacts arising from sources other than development are affecting functionally linked land, it is often not adequately protected. At present functionally linked land doesn’t always have a clear status beyond policy-protection, which makes planning decision-making that affects it difficult. The PSS could clarify what protection should be afforded to functionally linked habitat and therefore how decision-making where it is affected should be handled.

Often there is a range of issues affecting a protected site, including climate change, but the only impact currently being addressed is future development. The hope is that PSS can provide a framework for mechanisms and actions to address wider impacts.

Circumstances may force action due to impacts arising, but the following could also be significant drivers in many areas:

• local authorities’ ambition for local nature recovery and delivery at a landscape scale,
• meeting local authority legal duties for nature and
• delivering wider natural capital benefits.

In some cases, there may be a drive from the local community and councillors to address strategic issues affecting a local protected site.  

These ambitions would link into habitat creation/enhancement to meet Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) priorities, action for local wildlife sites and climate and/or nature emergency declarations, as well as joining up with other local priorities linked to delivery of ecosystem services. The hope is that PSS will also enable mitigation to be developed in partnership; help find novel solutions to the issues; and drive timely action.  

Natural England

PSS are part of a wider protected sites improvement programme run by Natural England. Many protected sites are in an unfavourable & declining condition; some will be suitable for a PSS and others will be improved through other measures.  

Natural England is working up potential PSS through a co-designed approach in the  PSS implementation phase from April 2025 to 2029. Each PSS will feature place-making that boosts nature recovery and socio-economic well-being, as well as helping to transform land use to boost rural enterprises and nature recovery.

From April 2025. Natural England anticipates that announcements on the first PSS to be put to public consultation following co-design with stakeholders will be from March 2026 onwards.

The current multi-disciplinary PSS research and development team at Natural England will support the development of the first phase of PSS. In addition, the relevant Natural England area team to the site will provide key local support.  

Each PSS will be developed within a partnership. Where appropriate to the site circumstances and agreed through local governance, the NE area team will take the lead on the PSS process.

As part of the strategy, measures and actions will be identified by that partnership and reviewed on a locally agreed timescale. As the impacts affecting the condition of the protected site will be broad and at times complex (hence the need for a PSS) the agreed solutions and the organisations needed and collaboration necessary to achieve favourable status will be broad too.

Government's Autumn 2024 budget set out a commitment to fund PSS (Page 110 paragraph 4.107) '...and £13 million to expand Protected Sites Strategies in priority areas.'

The funding allocated by government as an in-year transfer of funds for Natural England, Forestry Commission and Environment Agency will be deployed to commission partners including LPAs and PAS to co-design the first PSS, evaluate the results and refine the PSS Advisory Guidance to support further tranches of PSS and the forward development of the first tranche of PSS. This will act as seed-corn funding that leverages further resources to achieve PSS objectives. LPAs and other partners who have been working on partnerships with NE Area Teams that lend themselves to provide innovative research insights for PSS development will most likely be invited to support some of the first PSS to be developed. Further tranches of PSS will be selected over the coming years through a bidding process by NE area teams supported by partners, including LPAs.  

Specific guidance on green finance forms part of Natural England's Protected Site Strategies Advisory Guidance 1.0.

Any existing funding mechanisms that apply directly or indirectly to the protected site could be brought under the umbrella of a PSS. Further information on potential funding mechanisms is set out in Natural England's PSS Advisory Guidance 1.0, Protected Site Strategies and Other Environmental Levers report. 

Further information on strategic approaches to manage protected site impacts from development and their relationship with PSS is provided below for existing strategic mitigation mechanisms for recreational impacts and nutrient neutrality.

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) cannot be used to enhance protected site designated features, except if the habitat is intertidal; Government guidance on selling biodiversity units as a land manager provides more information. BNG could potentially be used to improve the condition of protected sites by funding habitat creation/enhancement beyond the site boundary. 

Mechanisms could potentially help to unlock further investment when aggregated. Government has published guidance on combining environmental payments with BNG. This includes stacking credits & units from different nature markets, which could helpfully be applied to PSS delivery.

The Nature Restoration Fund introduced by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 also has the potential to provide funding for PSS delivery. Further detail is set out in this Government Factsheet and Natural England blog post.

Green finance is also expected to be an important source of PSS funding. A Green Finance Toolkit and Green Commerce Manual has been produced as part of Natural England's PSS Advisory Guidance 1.0. More information is set out on the PAS Green Commerce and Green Finance page.

A specific piece of work being commissioned now by Natural England to answer this question, it includes advice on public consultation and other legal topics of relevance to PSS. Any feedback from local authorities is welcome as the process is being developed ahead of future revisions of the guidance.

Local Plans already play a role in safeguarding designated sites, requiring developments to demonstrate no adverse impact on Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), Special Protection Areas (SPAs), Ramsar sites, and avoid adverse impacts on Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).  

LPAs already conduct Habitat Regulations Assessments (HRA) to assess the potential impact of development on European sites. With PSS, there will be clearer, site-specific guidance (and evidence) to inform these assessments and help LPAs manage cumulative impacts on protected sites more effectively.  

While Local Plans provide a strong framework for spatial planning, it can sometimes be challenging to justify policy protection outside protected areas without a robust evidence base. A PSS could therefore add an additional layer of strategic oversight, e.g. by identifying necessary actions for off-site actions around a protected site and ensuring that local planning decisions and policies align with these measures, and, in theory, could offer a framework for delivering the aspirations of Local Plans.

More information on the interaction between Local Plans and PSS is set out in Natural England's PSS Advisory Guidance (see page 26-28 of PSS and other environmental levers report).

The below summarises the relationship of PSS to two key elements of strategic mitigation for recreational impacts on protected sites. Natural England can provide further guidance on strategic solutions for addressing the impacts of recreational disturbance / pressure on protected sites.

SAMMS (strategic access management and mitigation strategy)

A Strategic Access Management and Monitoring Strategy (SAMMS) is a tool used in certain areas to provide mitigation for development proposals affecting European Sites through recreational disturbance. Developers with proposed developments within a specified distance of the protected site/s can make a financial contribution to the SAMMS.

Whilst considering or developing a SAMMS, local authorities may identify existing and/or wider pressures on the protected site best addressed strategically, perhaps as part of a partnership, project or programme or as an opportunity to comply with their s40 NERC Biodiversity Duty Act duties.  In which case a PSS could be progressed to include SAMM as one of the tools/measures to help bring the site back into favourable condition alongside other measures.  

SANG (suitable alternative nature green space)

SANGs are recreational sites, created to attract residents of new developments away from a protected site/s that are sensitive to recreational activities such as dog walking. If there is recreational pressure on the protected site arising from new development, a SANG may be identified and created which could form part of a wider approach under a PSS.

Various river catchment areas are required to follow a 'nutrient neutral' approach where the unfavourable condition of a protected site is due to phosphorus and/or nitrogen pollution.

Whilst addressing nutrient neutrality, local authorities may identify additional pressures that arise from outside the site they may wish to address perhaps as part of a partnership, project or programme or as an opportunity to comply with their s40 NERC Biodiversity Duty Act duties.  In which case, a PSS could be progressed and the nutrient neutrality approach would sit within the PSS as one of the tools/measures to help bring the site back into favourable condition alongside other measures.    

PAS Nutrient Neutrality and the planning system webpages provide further information on the nutrient mitigation approach.

The Environment Act contains a specific duty on all public authorities to "have regard" to relevant Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) and defines a “supporting authority” role for local authorities, national park authorities and Natural England.

LNRS and PSS should play complementary roles in nature recovery. A LNRS provides a broad spatial framework across a Responsible Authority’s area, mapping all protected sites and identifying priorities for wider nature improvement. LNRS focus on broader-scale improvements and generally avoid actions within protected site boundaries, to prevent conflict with existing management. PSS, by contrast, focus specifically on improving the condition of protected sites. However, PSS are also expected to consider external pressures and opportunities beyond site boundaries where relevant.

Further detail on how LNRS will interact with PSS is set out in Natural England's PSS Advisory Guidance 1.0 (see pages 24 to 25 of the PSS and other environmental levers report).  

PSS will be a strategy to improve the conservation and management of a named protected site (or group of sites), and to address a range of environmental issues that impact on these sites. EDPs on the other hand will set out a package of conservation measures to address one or more environmental impacts of development. This may be the conservation of a specific species across various areas or to address the impact of one large project.

The Planning and Infrastructure Act requires Natural England, in preparing an EDP, to have regard to Environment Act strategies such as PSS. This provides a mechanism for ensuring alignment between the strategic mitigation aims of EDPs and the longer-term recovery goals of PSS.  

While EDPs are solely intended to identify and deliver strategic conservation measures that address the environmental impacts of development (such as nutrient pollution or habitat loss) they may also contribute to the broader restoration ambitions of PSS by supporting actions that improve the condition and resilience of protected sites over time. 

The Nature Recovery Network is a single, national network which will benefit people and wildlife and will provide an integrated approach to nature recovery. Protected sites will be at the heart of the NRN and will be enhanced and connected via new or improved wildlife-rich places forming the network. PSS will be a key way of securing enhancements both on and connecting to protected sites.

When complying with the biodiversity duty authorities must consider relevant strategies, which include Protected Site Strategies.  Engagement with and proactively contributing to a PSS would be a positive action a local authority could take to meet Biodiversity Duty requirements.

There is no set time period within the legislation for review. This will be set locally by the relevant PSS partnership but at this point it is envisioned it will be no longer than 5 years.

Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) are large-scale developments designated under the Planning Act 2008 to streamline the consenting process for projects of national importance. Applications are examined by the Planning Inspectorate, which advises the Secretary of State on whether to grant consent.

NSIPs aim to deliver nationally important infrastructure efficiently, while a PSS aims to protect designated sites. Where a Habitat Regulations Assessment for an NSIP identifies significant effects on a protected site, a PSS can be used explicitly as a statutory mitigation or compensation mechanism to avoid, reduce, or offset those impacts.

Where deemed appropriate, a PSS may be commissioned to deliver mitigation or compensation for one or multiple NSIP schemes, with the development and implementation of PSS measures being chargeable. In addition to formal mitigation, there may be opportunities for PSS solutions to be co-developed collaboratively with NSIP promoters and other stakeholders through consultation and engagement.

More information on the relationship between NSIPs, Freeports, Investment Zones and PSS is set out in the PSS Advisory Guidance (see page 17-18 of PSS and other environmental levers report)