New Protected Species Licence Charges from Natural England
Natural England will be implementing new Protected Species licence charges for development works. They are aiming to be introduced before the 2019 maternity season (May to August).
Fowlers has been advised ahead of this change by a number of Ecologists that we regularly work with.
New Protected Species licence charges
After a consultation in 2017/2018, Natural England have decided to introduce fees for a range of Protected Species licences. These new fees from Natural England are in addition to the fees Ecological Consultants charge as a third party service.
In Natural England’s consultation the reasons for the new charges included:
“to improve the licencing service by enabling investment to match demand and to change the service funding from wholly taxpayer-funded to a mixture of taxpayer and service-user funding”
What does this mean for my project?
Householder planning applications for alterations or extensions are exempt from most of these new fees. However, new build projects could have a fee to pay for a licence.
Here at Fowlers, our Planning team and in-house Survey Coordinator have been briefed on the new charges, and will be able to advise on any new and existing projects.
Finding Protected Species on your site does not necessarily cause long delays or increase costs significantly. Most of our clients are still able to realise their dream homes.
For more information on Protected Species, visit Natural England.
More information on the new Protected Species licence charges
For full information on the new Protected Species licence charges from Natural England, visit the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
