Priority Habitats Inventory (England)
The Priority Habitat Inventory is a spatial dataset that maps priority habitats identified in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and listed as being of principal importance for the purpose of conserving or enhancing biodiversity, under Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (2006). The PHI is updated twice a year and where possible habitats are mapped to polygons in OS Mastermap. These polygons are merged or split where necessary to create resulting habitat patches. The PHI currently maps 27 terrestrial and freshwater priority habitats across England. These being: Blanket bog (BLBOG), Calaminarian grassland (CALAM), Coastal & floodplain grazing marsh (CFPGM), Coastal saltmarsh (SALTM), Coastal sand dunes (CSDUN), Coastal vegetated shingle (CVSHI), Deciduous woodland (DWOOD), Limestone pavements (LPAVE), Lowland calcareous grassland (LCGRA), Lowland dry acid grassland (LDAGR), Lowland Fens (LFENS), Lowland heathland (LHEAT), Lowland meadows (LMEAD), Lowland raised bog (LRBOG), Maritime cliff & slope (MCSLP), Mountain heath & willow scrub (MHWSC), Mudflats (MUDFL), Purple moor grass & rush pastures (PMGRP), Reedbeds (RBEDS), Saline lagoons (SLAGO), Traditional orchards (TORCH), Upland calcareous grassland (UCGRA), Upland hay meadows (UHMEA), Upland heathland (UHEAT), Upland flushes, fens & swamps (UFFSW), Lakes (LAKES), Ponds (PONDS). The PHI also includes four habitat classes which are not priority habitats, but which hold potential importance for conservation of biodiversity in England. These can indicate a mosaic of habitat which may contain priority habitats, have restoration potential and/or contribute to ecological networks. Where evidence indicates the presence of unmapped or fragmented priority habitats within such polygons, these are attributed as additional habitats. These being: Fragmented heath (FHEAT), Grass moorland (GMOOR), Good quality semi-improved grassland (GQSIG), No main habitat (NMHAB). For some polygons the PHI contains additional information about the main habitats in the form of feature descriptions and corresponding feature codes. These being: Priority Ponds and lakes - Oligotrophic lakes (OLIGO), Dystrophic lakes (DYSTR), Mesotrophic lakes (MESOT), Eutrophic standing waters (EUTRO), Ice age pond (ICEAG), Pond with floating mats (PWFLM) Deciduous woodland – Upland Oakwood (UPOWD), Lowland beech and yew woodland (LBYWD), Upland mixed ashwoods (UMAWD), Wet Woodland (WETWD), Lowland mixed deciduous woodland (ASNWD), Plantations on ancient woodland (PAWDS) Grassland – Countryside Stewardship Option (CSOPT), Waxcap grassland (WAXCP) Heathland – Dry Heathland (DRYHL), Wet heathland (WETHL) Coastal sand dunes – Dunes under coniferous woodland (CWDUN), Dunes under deciduous woodland (DWDUN) General – Degraded (DEGRD) Attribution statement: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [year].
dataset
protocol: http
name: Attribute Metadata - Priority Habitats Inventory.pdf
description: Attribute Metadata - Priority Habitats Inventory.pdf download on Defra Data Services Platform
protocol: http
name: Open Government Licence.url
description: Open Government Licence.url download on Defra Data Services Platform
protocol: http
name: PHI.lyr
description: PHI.lyr download on Defra Data Services Platform
protocol: http
name: Priority_Habitats_Inventory_England.gdb.zip
description: Priority_Habitats_Inventory_England.gdb.zip download on Defra Data Services Platform
protocol: http
name: Priority_Habitats_Inventory_England.geojson.zip
description: Priority_Habitats_Inventory_England.geojson.zip download on Defra Data Services Platform
protocol: http
name: Priority_Habitats_Inventory_England.gpkg.zip
description: Priority_Habitats_Inventory_England.gpkg.zip download on Defra Data Services Platform
protocol: http
name: Spatial Metadata - Priority Habitats Inventory.pdf
description: Spatial Metadata - Priority Habitats Inventory.pdf download on Defra Data Services Platform
protocol: http
name: User Guide for Natural England's Priority Habitat Inventory v3.0 Nov2022.pdf
description: User Guide for Natural England's Priority Habitat Inventory v3.0 Nov2022.pdf download on Defra Data Services Platform
https://environment.data.gov.uk/spatialdata/priority-habitat-inventory-england/wms
protocol: http
name: Priority Habitats Inventory (England) WMS
description: Priority Habitats Inventory (England) Web Map Service
https://environment.data.gov.uk/spatialdata/priority-habitat-inventory-england/wfs
protocol: http
name: Priority Habitats Inventory (England) WFS
description: Priority Habitats Inventory (England) Web Feature Service
https://environment.data.gov.uk/explore/92b43165-0dd0-4e69-a712-1e49bb5aa0d0?download=true
protocol: http
name: Priority Habitats Inventory (England) Download
description: Download data by area of interest
protocol: http
name: Natural England Open Data Geoportal dataset page
description: Natural England Open Data Geoportal dataset page
https://environment.data.gov.uk/spatialdata/priority-habitat-inventory-england/ogc/features/v1
protocol: http
name: OGC API - Features service
description: OGC API - Features service
57ebd6a8-08d0-46c6-9253-547c27854df6
eng
http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/27700
environment
landscape
Natural England
ecology
habitats
environment
Habitats and biotopes
publication
2008-06-01
-8.655
1.79
60.85
49.9
2014-11-24
2099-12-31
creation
2014-11-24
revision
2024-08-15
notPlanned
All data is captured to the British National Grid using the OS MasterMap Topographic Layer.
Proprietary format | ESRI File based Geodatabase (GDB)
10.7
Custom licence terms: There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the Open Government Licence - https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/. Contains data created and provided by Cumbria Biodiversity Data Centre on behalf of Cumbria Wildlife Trust. The data has been extracted from Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Grassland Inventory and is used under the CC BY 4.0 International licence terms - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.
There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.
Natural England
data.services@naturalengland.org.uk
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england
description: Natural England Website
pointOfContact
Natural England
data.services@naturalengland.org.uk
pointOfContact
2025-05-21