The area already contributes over 2 million jobs and 110 billion of annual GVA whilst providing a place to live for over 3.7 million residents. The Government centrally led programme proposed that with the right support and investment between now (2019) and 2050 “The Arc” offers a significant opportunity for the government and partners to work together to support the harmonious delivery of improved connectivity, productivity and place-making, whilst ensuring pioneering environmental standards and enhancements are delivered and the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan is put into action.
The LNCP project was the first project delivered under the Arc Environment pillar. It was a Defra Group-led project (cross-Defra, Natural England, Forestry Commission and Environment Agency), with a team hosted by the Environment Agency. It was conceived to develop a local natural capital plan (LNCP) for the Oxford to Cambridge area in order to support the delivery of environmental protection and enhancement as part of the planned growth and investment. Within the 25 Year Environment Plan, the government committed to LNCPs, with the aim of embedding natural capital thinking into growth plans. However there was no detailed framework for what these should encompass, aside from setting out that they should be locally owned and co-designed strategic place-based plans that provide a mechanism to prioritise environmental improvements, ensure effective coordination of planning & delivery and stimulate investment.
A secondary aim of the LNCP project was to provide a scalable and replicable framework for local natural capital plans elsewhere.
Follow our journey so far by clicking on the images below – from defining our approach to developing a local natural capital plan through to reviewing the products that form part of the evidence base.
Working in partnership with stakeholders across the geography and national government, we agreed a detailed scope for the project, reviewed natural capital approaches, collated evidence on natural capital assets and opportunities and developed a natural capital account.
