Advice on commercial income for National Park Authorities

This is an initial piece of work, to be completed before financial year end 22/23 that would seek to determine the following:

Understand the current suite of earned and commercial income sources that NPAs are exploiting and explore how this varies across NPAs

Assess whether there is in potential for NPAs to profitably increase and diversify their income and capitalise on other local opportunities to unlock new untapped or underexploited sources of revenue? Assess how this is likely to vary across NPAs

How significant might the opportunity be for NPAs? Can we identify tangible examples of this local income generation strategy in action that might provide inspiration to NPAs?

What are the barriers, key dependencies, legal and financial considerations for NPAs in growing commercial income?

Consider how developed each NPA is in terms of income generation, and what potential exists for each?

How might the opportunities identified inform the priorities of National Parks Partnerships (NPP) in prospecting for partnerships? Does the evidence point to further activities where NPP could provide a vehicle for unlocking further unrestricted revenue for NPA shareholders?

At a macro level, what resource - capital, staff resources, consultancy - would be required to unlock this income generation potential and how would this vary across NPAs?

What changes are needed in powers and legislation to enable NPAs to fully exploit the range of opportunities and how might this come into conflict with their statutory purposes?

What role can Defra & its agencies as well as other public bodies play in supporting NPAs in developing opportunities?