Strategic significance is a factor within the Biodiversity Metric that considers whether post-development habitat creation or enhancement is being delivered in locations identified as priorities for nature recovery. Where a published Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) identifies a mapped measure and the proposed habitat delivers that measure, the habitat can receive higher strategic significance within the statutory biodiversity metric.
For developers, landowners and habitat bank providers, this means where and what habitat is created can influence its biodiversity value. Understanding the relationship between the Biodiversity Metric, LNRS mapping and local nature recovery priorities can therefore help inform both development design and off-site BNG delivery.
What Does Strategic Significance Mean in the Biodiversity Metric?
Strategic significance describes the local importance of a habitat based on its location and habitat type. Within the statutory biodiversity metric, it is used to encourage habitat creation and enhancement in locations where those interventions can contribute to wider nature recovery priorities.
The metric does not simply measure the number of hectares being created or enhanced. Biodiversity units are influenced by several factors, including habitat distinctiveness, condition and strategic significance.
For post-development habitats, strategic significance can therefore affect the number of biodiversity units generated by a proposed habitat creation or enhancement project.
This applies to both on-site and off-site biodiversity gains, making strategic significance relevant to developers as well as landowners establishing habitat banks.
What Is a Local Nature Recovery Strategy?
A Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) is a statutory spatial strategy that identifies priorities and opportunities for nature recovery within a defined area of England.
There are 48 LNRS areas covering England. Each strategy is led by an appointed responsible authority and contains two core components: a written statement of biodiversity priorities and a local habitat map.
The government’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy guidance explains that these strategies identify where actions could make a particular contribution to nature recovery.
An LNRS might identify opportunities to restore grassland, create wetlands, improve woodland, establish hedgerows, increase ecological connectivity between existing habitats, and/or deliver other relevant measures considered appropriate to the land in question.
The aim is to encourage but not obligate individual habitat projects to contribute towards a wider, connected network for nature rather than operating as isolated biodiversity enhancements.
How Does an LNRS Affect Strategic Significance?
Where an LNRS has been published, its mapped measures are used to determine whether relevant post-development habitats can qualify for high strategic significance within the statutory biodiversity metric.
A habitat does not receive a higher score simply because it sits somewhere inside an LNRS area. The proposed habitat must be in a location identified for the relevant mapped measure, and the nature recovery action associated with that location must be delivered.
For example, if an LNRS identifies a particular area for species-rich grassland creation, creating the appropriate grassland in that mapped location may qualify for high strategic significance. If woodland planting were proposed in that same area instead, high strategic significance would not apply because the proposed habitat does not align with the measure identified by the LNRS.
The statutory biodiversity metric then reflects that strategic alignment within the biodiversity unit calculation.
This creates a direct relationship between local nature recovery priorities and the value generated through BNG.
Can Strategic Significance Increase Biodiversity Units?
Yes. High strategic significance can increase the biodiversity units generated by qualifying post-development habitat.
Under the current statutory metric, high strategic significance has a multiplier of 1.15, compared with 1.0 for low strategic significance. In practical terms, qualifying habitat creation or enhancement can therefore receive a 15% uplift through this component of the metric.
For example, if a qualifying post-development habitat would otherwise generate 10 units before strategic significance is applied, a 1.15 strategic significance multiplier could increase that component to 11.5 units, subject to the rest of the statutory biodiversity metric calculation.
However, strategic significance cannot be used simply to make an otherwise unsuitable BNG proposal work. Habitat distinctiveness, condition, trading rules and other relevant metric factors still apply.
How Do Local Plans Affect Strategic Significance?
As of 27 August 2026, 43 of England’s 48 Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) have been published, meaning most areas now have a formal LNRS that can be used when determining strategic significance within the statutory biodiversity metric.
Where an LNRS has been published, it becomes the relevant strategic framework for determining high strategic significance for post-development habitats in accordance with the statutory metric guidance. Developers and ecological consultants should therefore review the published LNRS for the relevant area and establish whether proposed habitat creation or enhancement aligns with the measures identified within it.
For the remaining areas where an LNRS has not yet been published, locally relevant plans and strategies may still need to be considered when assigning strategic significance. The current status of LNRS publication across England can be checked using the government’s map of LNRS areas and responsible authorities.
Does Strategic Significance Affect Baseline Biodiversity Value?
Where an LNRS has been published, baseline habitats are assigned low strategic significance under the current statutory metric approach.
High strategic significance is instead available to qualifying post-development habitat creation and enhancement that delivers an appropriate mapped LNRS measure.
This distinction helps create an incentive for new BNG delivery to support strategic nature recovery priorities.
The baseline biodiversity value still depends on other important factors, including habitat type, size, distinctiveness and condition. Strategic significance does not replace those ecological assessments.
Accurate baseline habitat information therefore remains essential when calculating pre-development biodiversity value.
How Does Strategic Significance Affect Off-Site BNG?
Strategic significance can affect the biodiversity value generated by an off-site habitat bank where habitat creation or enhancement aligns with a mapped LNRS measure.
For landowners, this makes LNRS mapping an important consideration when assessing the potential of land for off-site BNG.
Land that falls within a mapped opportunity and can practically and appropriately deliver the relevant habitat measure may be capable of generating additional biodiversity value through the strategic significance multiplier.
However, that does not automatically make the land a commercially viable habitat bank. Existing habitats, ecological condition, achievable habitat enhancement, long-term management costs, local demand and the statutory metric’s trading rules all need to be considered.
At Civity, we assess habitat bank opportunities from both an ecological and commercial perspective, helping landowners understand the potential biodiversity units that could be generated and whether there is likely to be developer demand for those units.
Is Strategic Significance the Same as Spatial Risk?
No. Strategic significance and spatial risk are separate elements of the statutory biodiversity metric.
Strategic significance considers whether habitat creation or enhancement supports identified local nature recovery priorities.
Spatial risk considers the geographic relationship between off-site biodiversity gains and the development site they are being used to compensate for.
A habitat bank could therefore qualify for high strategic significance because it delivers a mapped LNRS priority while still being subject to a spatial risk adjustment when its units are allocated to a particular development.
Developers purchasing off-site units need to consider both factors.
For more detail on location, read our guide to the BNG Spatial Risk Multiplier and how the location of off-site units affects their effective value.