Habitat Bank Schemes

Habitat bank schemes must be retained and secured for a period of at least 30 years. Managing such a site could become an additional income stream for landowners, with the change in land use and future maintenance funded by biodiversity unit / credit sales.

However, it should be noted that schemes will involve an upfront cost to create / enhance habitat to generate a biodiversity unit to sell, in addition to costs to secure a conservation covenant and register the site on the Natural England register (details as provided below).

We advise the financial commitment forms a material consideration prior to setting up a scheme.

A landowner must enter into a legal agreement before submitting off-site biodiversity units onto Natural England's Biodiversity Gain Site register (Register a biodiversity gain site - GOV.UK) which can then be sold to developers. WCC, as a Responsible Body, only consider conservation covenants as a legal agreement, not S106’s.

Any proposed sites in Warwickshire that WCC enter into a conservation covenant with will undergo environmental, legal and financial checks. Detailed information will be required as part of a review process.