The Government have responded to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report into Local Nature Partnerships, agreeing that local people know their local priorities better than central policy officials and it is therefore important that they have functioning mechanisms available to enable them to make decisions that affect their areas. They recommend that a review of the LNP programme, to identify an agenda for action linked to other nature conservation initiatives with approaching deadlines.
Specifically, a review should:
- Examine LNPs’ funding and their links to LEPs, HWBs and local planning authorities, as well as potential new links with additional stakeholders such as landowners and farmers.
- Identify best practice from the successful LNPs, but also the barriers that have hindered the less successful ones, including the role played by conflicting objectives of the local bodies involved
- Identify those LNPs where the Government will need to relaunch the initiative, providing newly targeted seed funding to establish an effective national coverage.
