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Over 100 landowners, farmers, planners, commercial developers, land agents and environmentalists from across the Midlands discussed the government’s far-reaching Environment Bill at law firm Lodders’ inaugural Planning event.
The ‘Development and Nature’ seminar was designed to help stakeholders from across the property sector tackle the confusion and uncertainty surrounding the Bill and specifically the bio-diversity net gain (BNG) elements of it.
Held at Warwickshire’s Mallory Court, delegates voted the event a ‘timely forum’, given the high levels of concern about species loss and habitat degradation and the status of the key piece of implementing legislation.
Chairing the event was Rod Bird, one of Lodders’ leading Rural law specialists who works with farmers, farming businesses, and landowners. He said: “Whilst there is no shortage of narrative and rhetoric about bio-diversity net gain, what landowners and developers need is practical information about the Environment Bill and what they will have to do to comply, the opportunities it will present for them, as well as its real effect on the planning and development process.
“Development that adopts a bio-diversity net gain approach seeks to make a positive impact on the environment, by delivering improvements through habitat creation or enhancement, after avoiding or mitigating harm as far as possible.?
“The mandatory requirement for developers will be to provide, as a minimum, a 10 percent bio-diversity net gain in respect of any new development that would result in degradation of habitat, and this will affect developers and landowners in a number of ways.” Jon Dearsley, Associate Director at Savills Rural, explained: “Whilst we understand agricultural yields very well, we are only just beginning to understand the carbon sequestration power of the 50 native British tree species.
“What is important is that development leaves bio-diversity in a better state than before, and an approach whereby developers work with stakeholders to support their priorities for nature conservation.”
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has been involved withbio-diversity offsetting schemes since 2012, these use a biodiversity metric since adopted by DEFRA.
Speaking at the event, the Trust’s CEO, Ed Green, said: “Bio-diversity net gain is only one part of the solution to nature’s recovery, but has potential to make a significant contribution towards the recovery of nature.”
Dr Gemma Jerome, Director of the UK’s first benchmark for green infrastructure ‘Building with Nature’ explained the organisation’s accreditation scheme: “The scheme enables landscape-scale environmental enhancement and health and wellbeing benefits through the delivery of green infrastructure features close to where people live.”
The speakers were joined for a Q& A session by David Lowe from Warwicshire County Council, which has been a pioneer of biodiversity offesetting schemes and Tom Docker a director of Middlemarch Environmental. There was a lively discussion which reflected the depth of interest in the subject.
Lodders Planning seminar forms part of the firm’s wider resources developed to help the rural sector prepare for and understand biodiversity net gain, and the broader implications of the Environment Bill.
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Lodders is a premier law firm in Stratford upon Avon, Cheltenham, Birmingham and Henley in Arden. The firm has 28 partners and over 160 fee earners and support staff across its office network. With its portfolio of sector and market specific top-ranking legal teams, the firm has recorded year-on-year growth in recent years.