Natural Economy

The Natural Economy North West Steering Group, led by Natural England and supported by Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), was formed to help maximise the economic contribution made by the Northwest's natural assets to the regional economy.
In July 2005, TEP produced a report analysing the spatial relationship between key environmental assets and varying degrees of multiple deprivation (commissioned by Forestry Commission (FC) and English Nature on behalf of the North West Natural Economy Steering Group). That work was a pilot project applied to Lancashire. It found that there was generally a coincidence between the distribution of recognised ecological assets and areas of multiple deprivation within the county, and gave some preliminary indication of a spatial policy response to the coincidence so that resources might be targeted for the creation and management of environmental assets where they are currently lacking in deprived areas.


Following the pilot, FC and Natural England have commissioned TEP to expand the pilot work to the entire Northwest region. This can be found on the ‘Northwest Natural Environment Index’ page.