1. Great crested newt district level licensing Nicola George 17 March 2017
At last year’s event, I reported NE’s view that the system of wildlife licensing had to change. There was no alternative. It was not affordable within foreseeable constraints on the public purse, it was not delivering enough conservation benefit and it was damaging the reputation of nature conservation and in particular the strict protection provided by the Habitats Regulations.
No single species embodies this imperative more than GCN
Subsequently, I attended a conference set up by ARC, which showed that there is lots of worthy thinking about GCN but no radical solution, which would reverse the steady decline of this species. The opportunity which stood out for this species was the Better Regulation Agenda. This presented the possibility of redirecting the huge investment made by the development industry in measures required by licensing into something more positive.

2. Contents Organisational context District level licensing
The Woking Pilot
Benefits
District level licensing stages
National roll out of district licensing
GCN new licence applications
Budget forecast

3. Organisational context
Conservation Strategy, Towards 2020, Defra’s 25 year plan:
Need for more strategic interventions which provide multiple benefits - for wildlife/landscapes, growth and people
Two drivers:
Improving conservation outcomes for great crested newt
Speeding up housing delivery through reform of licencing  
Woking
The Kent Project
Warwickshire
National roll-out  

4. District level licensing
One licence for the whole district informed by:
Up front survey and data collection
Impact assessment and Conservation Strategy
Avoidance and mitigation secured at plan level through advice to the local planning authority (LPA)
Habitat compensation for the full impact of the development plan, ahead of the profile of impact
Habitat management and monitoring plan
Cost recouped from development

5. The Woking Pilot
Page 118 onwards, including guidance for developers
Page 135 the Conservation Strategy

6. Great Crested Newt Zones in Woking Borough

7. The development plan

8. Figure 3 Sites owned or managed in some way by the Council and the expanding suite of Suitable Accessible Natural Green Spaces
The strategic approach, in particular the overview of distribution creates a much more open choice of where to put compensatory habitat,
So it can be placed where it will best strengthen, extend or link up existing populations,
rather than squeezed in or around developments
In the case of Woking, there was the invitation to use the network Council land, shown on this map, which illustrates the breadth of possibilities compared to the site by site approach to development.
One particular advantage of this relative freedom of choice is that it maximises the likelihood that compensatory habitat can be located close to existing populations so that it will be colonised by natural dispersal. This means that there is no need to trap and relocate GCN from development sites. If the habitat provided for GCN will be colonised anyway, there would be no advantage in doing do.
That means investment in habitat can be maximised, which will increase the benefit for GCN.

9. Benefits For developers:
Replaces current site-by-site approach requiring compensatory habitat to be found for individual schemes
For local authorities:
Improves the district offer to developers, thereby helping a district to attract the development they need to fulfil local plan objectives
Shifts investment from piecemeal GCN impact assessment and mitigation into strategic habitat improvements
Net gain for GCN through improved habitat provision, better protection of the most important sites, improved knowledge of GCN status
Savings for business, reduced delays, costs and uncertainty

10. District level licensing stages
Evidence gathering - eDNA, HSI, collation of existing data, modelling
Strategy formulation - Impact assessment of district plan, avoidance and mitigation advice to LPA, habitat compensation areas of search
Habitat compensation - habitat creation, enhancement and maintenance
Administration - Organisational licence, development site authorisations, managing developer contributions, monitoring, review of licences

11. National roll out of district licensing
150 districts
April March 2020
Year 1 20 districts
Year 2 65 districts
Year districts
Replace 77% of current licensing

12. GCN new licence applications 2015 and 2016

13. Set up - £7m Business as usual Budget forecast £2m eDNA and HSI
£2.4m strategy formulation
£1.5m habitat management
£1m securing land
£37K data from ARGs
[and £1.2 LPA staff time]
Business as usual
£13.5m habitat management and monitoring
£3m securing land
£0.7m LPA