What is a conservation covenant?
A conservation covenant is a new legal tool, introduced by the Environment Act 2021, in the form of a bespoke agreement between a Responsible Body and a landowner (or leaseholder). These voluntary agreements can be tailored to each project and used to formally agree conservation actions and outcomes that benefit nature or heritage features.
As well as being flexible in their content, these agreements can last for any pre-agreed length of time into perpetuity, making them suitable for both short term projects and multi-generational conservation programmes.
To facilitate this potential transfer of responsibilities, these agreements are registered as a Local Land Charge, which makes sure that conservation commitments on the land are passed on to future landowners.
Process and governance
Below you can find guidance on the application process. If you are interested in applying, please read these details carefully first.
If you are looking to produce a Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) habitat bank, please see our existing list of project exclusion criteria below. Projects that include one or more of the below may not be eligible to enter into a BNG agreement. If you would like advice in relation to project exclusion criteria prior to application, please contact: responsiblebodyinbox@lakedistrict.gov.uk.
We may be able to offer you chargeable pre-application advice and collaborative project co-design services. This allows us to support you to deliver the proposed public goods to a high standard through a range of approaches, depending on your approach and business model. We can support you to develop projects that provide a range of benefits while ensuring that they meet our standards prior to application. For example, services we could provide may include; Landscape, World Heritage Site (WHS) and Historic Impact Assessments, Biodiversity Net Gain baseline assessments or other Ecological Surveys and reports.
There may be times where we need to decline to offer these services due to lack of capacity in the team, or for projects that we believe to be wholly unsuitable. These services are chargeable at an hourly rate to be quoted at the time of application.
Using our online application form, you can make a submission for a conservation covenant by entering the required information, as outlined in the ‘How to apply’ section below.
Once we have received your application, we will determine what the relevant application fee is and respond to you with the costs and method of payment.
At this point, you may retract your application, but If you continue you will become liable for the fee. Once you have applied, your project may be accepted, be issued with a request for more information, accepted with conditions, or refused.
Upon receiving your application, our in-house solicitor, finance officers and environment officers contribute towards a recommendation report, written based on the merits of the project.
The report covers the subjects of legal suitability, financial achievability, ecological suitability and consideration of any potential impacts on National Park Special Qualities, and WHS status. This report is then presented to a LDNP member’s working group known as the Conservation Covenants Board.
This board, or any subsequent delegates, determine whether the LDNPA will enter into the agreement or not. The LDNPA reserves the right to decline any given application.
- Sites allocated in Local Plans / Neighbourhood Development Plans for housing, employment or mixed use
- Sites in grant schemes such as Countryside Stewardship, Sustainable Farming incentive or Farming in Protected Landscapes, unless new proposal is substantially different or provides additional benefits to the previously funded project
- Scheduled Monuments
- Garden land within residential curtilage
- Statutory designated sites protected for wildlife value, such as SSSI or SACs, unless new proposal is substantially different to management of the existing designated features.
- Habitats created or improved prior to 30/01/2020
- Habitats created or improved post 30/01/2020 where no baseline was undertaken prior to interventions, or where it is not feasible to baseline retrospectively.
How to apply
You can apply to the LDNPA Responsible Body Service to enter into a conservation covenant for your project by completing the survey form: Conservation Covenant Application Form.
Once submitted, you will be given an estimate of fees for the project and at this point you can choose to go ahead or not. If you consent to assessment of the project, fees will then be payable for each stage as relevant.
Note: your project may be accepted, be issued with a request for more information, accepted with conditions, or refused. You will still be liable for any application fee quoted.
Application checklist
To complete the application form you will need to provide the following, listed below.
Please note we do not accept public applications from outside of Cumbria. If your project is of national strategic importance, i.e is being led by another protected landscape, please directly contact: Responsiblebodyinbox@lakedistirct.gov.uk
If you are looking to create a habitat bank within the LDNP, but are securing your site with another LPA or Responsible Body, please send details of your project to: Consultations@Lakedistrict.gov.uk This is so that we may give our advice and support, helping to ensure that the special qualities of the National Park have been adequately considered.
- Digital spatial data for the site boundary with appropriate permissions and copyrights
- An Ecological baseline survey of the proposed BNG site completed by a suitably qualified and experienced ecologist, including assessment of statutory and non-statutory locally designated sites
- Fully completed statutory biodiversity metric spreadsheet
- A plan that follows the UK Habitat Classification showing the spatial locations of the habitats represented in the baseline tabs of the biodiversity metric
- A plan that follows the UK Habitat Classification showing the spatial locations of the habitats represented in the enhancement and creation tabs of the biodiversity metric, or those retained from baseline
- A plan that shows existing or proposed site access points and routes
- The georeferenced spatial data used to create the above plans
- A Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan (HMMP)
- A Species conservation and impact report, detailing potential impacts on, and what positive actions will be undertaken by the project to support, protected and local target species. This should be informed by on-site survey, LNRS and data from your Local Environmental Records Centre (LERC), such as Cumbria Biodiversity Data Centre.
- Historic Impact Assessment informed by a Historic Environment Record (HER) search and where appropriate, World Heritage Impact Assessment. Please contact: archaeology@lakedistrict.gov.uk
- Landscape Character Impact Assessment
- Evidence of land ownership/tenancy, with official copies of land registry title deed(s) and plan(s)*
- Local land charges search for the relevant land holdings, drainage search, relevant utilities searches such as LSBUD, water, telecoms and a highways search for the site (to show any adopted highways where facilitating access to the site)*
- A signed statement of landowner agreement
- Where applicable, please confirm whether there are any existing mortgages, charges, or other lending interests registered against the title of the property.
- Evidence that any Natural England, Environment Agency, Local Lead Flood Authority or other consents or planning permissions required to undertake the habitat enhancement works have been approved/will be sought.
* Title deeds, plans and local land charges must be no older than 3 months at the time of application
- A summary describing how achievable your proposals are. This should identify potential barriers to delivery and how they will be managed.
- High level cashflow modelling which:
- Has evidence to support viability through anticipated cost of proposed interventions and estimated value/timing of credit sales.
- Has calculations to show value to be set aside for long term liabilities (ie ongoing maintenance of BNG site, contingency for unforeseen costs) and reasoning of figures used.
- Considers cost implications of insurances, taxes on income and any other impacts on viability of scheme.
- Description of how initial works will be funded. E.g Company reserves, equity investment, loan.
- Description of how funds will be managed or set aside amounts will be invested to protect the principal and ensure funds are available when needed (eg what institutions, what type of investment if applicable)
- Where applicable or available to company or sole trader:
- Provide company name, trading address and company number.
- If not available on Companies House, the last three sets of annual accounts.
- Management accounts/forecasts for the current year.
- Where applicable, please confirm whether there are any existing mortgages, charges, or other lending interests registered against the title of the property.
- Data including a local HER search and evidence of consultation and written support for the project from the relevant LPA Historic Environment Officer
- LERC protected species, local designated sites searches and evidence of consultation and support for the project from the relevant LPA officers.
