Green Northern Connections

Extensive road, rail and energy network developments are planned across the Northern Powerhouse area. At the same time Nature Recovery Networks are being defined in response to the Environment Bill. This concept aims to connect up the Nature Recovery networks across the North and link them in to Transport and Energy Infrastructure plans so that they can complement each other.

Here there is an opportunity to ensure biodiversity and environmental net gain work across these networks whilst also improving their resilience to climate change. There is also the opportunity to identify and create new green infrastructure to provide a range of benefits including mitigating the adverse effects of the networks, improving ecological connectivity and providing ecosystem services.