Biodiversity Offsetting

Land managers may able to benefit from a new income source is coming years if government plans are achieved.  Biodiversity offsetting is the creation of new habitats to compensate for those lost as a result of new development.  The policy formed part of the Natural Environment White Paper (NEWP) (see Bulletin of June 2011).  DEFRA has now issued a formal consultation on how this idea could be incorporated into the planning system.  The consultation can be found via https://www.gov.uk/biodiversity-offsetting and closes on the 7^th November.

Part of the aim is to speed up the planning process (and thus promote economic growth) by removing some of the environmental obstacles that developers face in securing permissions.  A relatively simple process would be used to work out the ‘value’ of the habitats being lost and what needed to be created to ensure there was no net loss (and even some gain) to the environment.  The benefit to landowners is that they could sell the use of their land to produce such offset areas.  These are likely to be long-term commitments so could lock-up land for many years.  However, payments could be attractive, given the large uplifts in land value unlocked if planning permission is granted.  For lower-quality farmland, biodiversity offsetting could offer new opportunities for profit.