Earlier this week the Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled his plans for an overhaul of the planning system to aid economic recovery – blaming great crested newts and “newt-counting”  for substantial delays to house building.

At NatureSpace, we recognise there can be lots of frustration around timing restrictions for newt work and that is why our scheme is designed to work all year round and remove those delays.

The Great Crested Newt District Licence scheme designed and operated by NatureSpace, removes the historic frustrations for developers around survey work for newts, with all survey work and habitat modelling of the area done up front, by the partnership.  

Many developers across the South Midlands and Gloucestershire have already used the scheme to benefit from this new licensing scheme, allowing them to satisfy legal requirements early in the planning process and avoid delays to development. The scheme offers a time and cost effective way for developers to deal with all their newt licensing needs – and at the same time providing a meaningful contribution to a landscape scale conservation scheme.

We have found our experience with NatureSpace to be time and cost-effective and following their work on this project we would recommend them. It has allowed us to progress with our future development on the site which is very important to us and we are now looking forward to starting construction work onsite in due course.”

David Wilson – Homes Southern

Greater conservation benefits are delivered because the scheme provides a more joined up approach across the landscape, providing more and better connected aquatic and terrestrial habitat for great crested newts and many other species and habitats. All conservation works are delivered by experts in amphibian and freshwater conservation away from development pressure, providing a long-term, secure future for newts.

One of our partner organisations, the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust summed up the situation perfectly:

“we think there’s no need for a conflict between economic growth and newt conservation. With better regulation and good conservation programmes, newts can thrive alongside a prospering economy. Slashing red tape and dismantling legislation is not the answer. More imaginative implementation, focusing on outcomes for nature while making processes simpler for developers, can make a real difference, as we are seeing with District Level Licensing for newts in the Midlands.”

The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), the leading professional body for ecologists and environmental managers, have also rebutted the suggestion that nature, specifically great crested newts, are to blame for the slow rate of building residential planning applications.

“CIEEM is not aware of the existence of any robust data demonstrating that the presence of great crested newts slows down development. Responsible developers, who carry out appropriate surveys early in the planning stages, would not normally experience a delay significant enough to affect their rate of housing completions. However, if a proportion of developers did experience such delays, the effect would surely be one of deferment, not cancellation of projects. Since laws protecting great crested newts in the UK have been in place since 1981, it seems highly unlikely that delayed projects with great crested newt issues would be to blame for the 2018 housing figures cited by the Prime Minister.”

To find out more on the scheme please visit our scheme facts page, or for more specific questions please contact us at info@naturespaceuk.com