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We create the mitigation major projects need
We deliver Habitat Regulations compensation, protected species mitigation and biodiversity net gain at infrastructure scale. We work with you to design the mitigation, buy the land, create the habitat and carry the obligation.
Our clients include government, defence and public bodies, water companies on NSIPs and AMP frameworks, hyperscale data centres and logistics, and grid, corridor and major civils schemes.
Trusted by organisations that cannot afford a scheme to fail, across government, defence, health, water, energy, transport, technology and logistics.
Mitigation built around your project
Most habitat banks sell standard units from stock. Major projects often need something more specific: compensation for a European site, a home for a protected species, or a rare habitat in the right place.
Where major projects get held up
- An appropriate assessment calls for compensation that nobody can currently supply
- Protected species are found on or next to the red line and there is nowhere to move them
- The habitat the metric requires isn’t held by any bank in the region
- A linear scheme crosses several planning authorities and character areas
- The consent deadline is weeks away, not seasons
How we work with you
- We design the mitigation around the actual impact and what the consent requires
- We buy the land freehold, in the right place
- We create and register the habitat, funded before consent
- We hold the long-term obligation and carry out the monitoring
- We work directly with Natural England and the planning authority, alongside you
Mitigation along the route
Linear schemes cross several authorities, catchments and character areas. Rather than one large compensation site far from the impact, we can create mitigation on a series of sites along the route.
Closer to the impact
We create the habitat near the communities and populations the scheme affects. That follows the spatial hierarchy in the metric and avoids the penalty for distant units.
Local benefit in every authority
Each planning authority on the route sees mitigation within or near its own boundary, which makes the scheme easier for it to support.
One contract, many sites
We find, buy and manage each site and report on them together, so you deal with one counterparty for the whole route.
Our capital, ahead of your consent
We fund the land and the habitat before your project is consented. Used early, that takes mitigation off the list of reasons for delay, and promoters can build it into their consent strategy from the start.
Land secured before submission
We buy or option the land before you submit, so the application names secured mitigation rather than a search area.
Habitat under way before Examination
Where the programme allows, we start creating habitat before Examination, so Natural England and the Examining Authority can see it on the ground.
Your capital stays in the project
We pay for the land, the habitat creation and the long-term management. You pay for the outcome, not the land purchase.
Bring us in early
Talk to us at scoping or PEIR stage and the mitigation can be designed into the scheme, rather than found late under deadline.
Sectors we work in
Mitigation for infrastructure projects across England.
Energy
Transport
Ports
Water
Commercial
For nature, forever
Thirty years is the legal minimum.
Ours is forever.
Infrastructure is built to last generations. Compensation that ends after a management period leaves the project exposed for the rest of its life. Ours does not end.
For the examination
Compensation secured in perpetuity rather than for a term, which answers the question examiners ask of every management plan: what happens when it ends?
For your funders
The obligation is secured on land we own outright, under a covenant registered against the title, with management funded by an endowment held independently of us.
For the places you build in
A reserve that stays a reserve, so the mitigation outlives the project, the promoter and us.
Our record
Bespoke delivery for organisations that cannot afford a scheme to fail. Client names are shown with their permission.
| Client | What was needed | Type | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hyperscale data centre operatorTechnology. Name withheld | Biodiversity mitigation for a hyperscale data centre, delivered to the programme the build required. | Biodiversity, bespoke | Delivered |
| BAE SystemsDefence | Open Mosaic Habitat on Previously Developed Land identified, created and registered against a ten-week consent deadline where no conventional route existed. | Rare habitat | Nine weeks |
| Home OfficeGovernment | Solent wader and Brent goose mitigation for a scheme stalled on Habitat Regulations grounds. | Habitat Regulations | Consented |
| South Coast NSIPInfrastructure. Name withheld | Awarded the contract to supply species mitigation for an NSIP: brent goose and waders under the Solent Waders and Brent Goose Strategy, and slow-worm. | Habitat Regulations | In delivery |
| Southern WaterWater, linear | Complex linear habitats along a route crossing several authorities and character areas. | Linear, multi-authority | Delivered |
| Yorkshire WaterWater | Awarded exclusive supplier status after a competitive national tender, on a four-year framework across the AMP programme. | Exclusive supplier | Four-year term |
| TritaxLogistics | Biodiversity units and bespoke skylark mitigation delivered together for one scheme. | Biodiversity and species | Delivered |
| Hillwood GroupLogistics | Biodiversity units for a logistics facility in West Northamptonshire. | Biodiversity | Units allocated |
| NetflixMedia | Biodiversity units from two of our habitat banks for the Longcross Studios development in Runnymede. | Biodiversity | Units allocated |
| Global retail brandRetail. Confidential | Multiple schemes under a framework legal agreement. | Biodiversity, framework | Framework agreement in place |
From enquiry to delivery
What happens, and when, once you get in touch.
Initial call
Send us the site, the species or designated sites involved, the assessment and your programme. Within a day we will tell you whether we can help and how. There is no charge for this.
Days 1 to 3
Feasibility study
A paid study identifies suitable land, tests it against what Natural England is likely to accept, and sets out a programme and price. The report is yours to use whether or not you go ahead with us.
Weeks 1 to 6
Land secured before submission
We take an option on the land or buy it, so your application or DCO can identify the mitigation site.
Before submission
Examination and consent
If Natural England or the Examining Authority raise questions on the mitigation, we provide the evidence, the land agreement and the financial security to answer them.
Through to consent
Delivery and management
We create the habitat in line with your construction programme, then manage and monitor it in perpetuity. We hold the legal obligation, not you.
In perpetuity
Community engagement
Major projects are often contested locally. Mitigation that people can see, visit and take part in helps show what the project gives back to the area.
Support for your consultation
We can present the mitigation proposals alongside your team at consultation events and to parish and town councils.
Access and education
Where the habitat allows, sites are open to schools, local groups and residents for visits, guided walks and Wild Blitz recording days.
Local contractors
We use local contractors and suppliers for groundworks, planting, surveys and management, so the spending stays in the area.
Results people can see
We host visits to the mitigation sites, so councillors and residents can see what the project has paid for.
Financial security
Funders and procurement teams need to know the mitigation will be delivered and maintained, and that the cost can’t come back to the project. We have £56.5m of capital for land and habitat and are rated Very Low Risk, international score A, so what we provide is a funded, secured asset rather than an operational liability.
Capital deployed early
We buy land and complete baselines and management plans ahead of consent, taking the delivery risk off your programme.
Establishment ringfenced
Habitat creation is fully funded from the outset and protected from disruption.
Long-term endowment
Part of each fee funds an endowment sized for the full period on conservative assumptions, held by an independent, regulated investment manager.
Independent oversight
The Responsible Body controls releases from the endowment and can take control if the scheme fails its objectives or the manager becomes insolvent.
Three ways to work with us
Consents slip and scope changes. Each option fixes terms and price early, then lets you adjust timing and quantity as the project moves, while we carry the cost.
Secured mitigation supply
Fix today’s price for the whole planning journey. A small option premium secures the mitigation and the balance is due on delivery. We option the land and prepare a red line and management plan you can submit with your application. After delivery the obligation is ours.
Land acquisition at cost plus
If you would rather hold the asset, we buy the land for you with our own capital, before your name can push up the price, and deliver the scheme at cost plus a fixed margin. Afterwards you can keep the land and have us manage it, or transfer it and the obligation to us.
Onsite habitat management
Where the mitigation is on land you keep, we take on the long-term management obligation for a fixed fee, with the same monitoring and oversight as our own habitat banks. Onsite habitat management
What we can deliver on a major scheme
One counterparty and one contract for all of it.
Habitat Regulations
Compensation and mitigation for schemes affecting European sites, supporting appropriate assessment and derogation.
Protected species
We create and secure receptor land for waders and brent goose, slow worm and other reptiles, skylark, great crested newt and dormouse.
Biodiversity net gain
We create habitat at scale and to order, including rare and high-distinctiveness habitats that no bank holds.
Nutrient and water neutrality
Catchment-matched credits and bespoke schemes where existing supply does not reach.
Linear and multi-authority
Corridors crossing several planning authorities and character areas, resolved as one programme.
Long-term stewardship
Management, monitoring and reporting for the life of the obligation, which we hold.
For consultants: we deliver what you specify
Your recommendation becomes deliverable
When you advise on complex mitigation, the open question is usually whether it can be secured. We answer that with land we own.
The delivery risk moves to us
Land, creation, monitoring and the long-term obligation sit on our balance sheet, outside your appointment and your professional indemnity.
We work through you
Introductions are recorded and we work through the appointed team unless the client asks otherwise, so your relationship with the client stays yours.
The law we apply here is the law across Europe
The UK Habitat Regulations transpose the EU Habitats and Birds Directives, so the same sites, the same tests and the same duty to compensate apply across all 27 member states.
Who to talk to
For Habitat Regulations, species and biodiversity on a major project, these are the people who will handle your enquiry.
Nicole Yeomans
Director, Head of Major Infrastructure Projects
Works with promoters across roads, rail, energy and utilities on species and Habitat Regulations mitigation.
Jack Potter
Partner, Technical
Leads bespoke mitigation for major schemes, from the first call to the last monitoring report.
Projects supplying this
Land we have bought and built for major projects.
Case studies
Work we have delivered for clients with this obligation.
Brent goose compensation for a scheme stalled over a year
Habitat Regulations
Species mitigation contract: brent goose, Solent waders and slow-worm
Habitat Regulations
Open Mosaic Habitat on Previously Developed Land registered against a ten-week deadline
Biodiversity, rare habitatWho stands behind the obligation
- The land
- We own the land freehold, with no lease and no third-party landowner.
- The covenant
- A conservation covenant or planning obligation protecting each site in perpetuity, registered against the title.
- Responsible Body
- An independent Responsible Body or the local authority can step in if we ever fail to deliver.
- The endowment
- Long-term management is funded by an endowment set aside at allocation.
- Financial strength
- We have £56.5m of capital for land and habitat, and are rated Very Low Risk with an international credit score of A. That capital lets us buy land and create habitat before your programme needs it, and fund its management for the long term.
Tell us about your project
Send us the species, the site, the assessment and the deadline, and we’ll reply within a day.