Great crested newt district level licensing [Update 27June 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. www.gov.uk/natural-england

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

Benefits of district licensing More influence on the planning system Better protection of the most important sites More, better, more securely protected habitat provision Improved knowledge of GCN status

National roll out of district licensing 150 districts April 2017- March 2020 Year 1 15 districts (Warwickshire - 7; Kent - 6 and Cheshire - 2) Year 2 65 districts Year 3 70 districts Replace 77% of current licensing

GCN new licence applications 2015 and 2016

Budget forecast Set up - £7m Business as usual £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