All creatures great and small matter when it comes to British development, as one of the most powerful financiers on earth is now finding out.
From dormice to nesting bats, our wildlife stirs up ardour among those who keep our rolling fields and verdant green belt close to their hearts. But it can be something more like a curse for individuals eyeing up land for luxury swimming pools or a new wing on their country estate, as well as developers determined to build homes and business hubs.
Stephen Schwarzman is among them. As the CEO of the Blackstone Group, the private equity firm he founded in 1985, he has amassed an estimated net worth of £31 billion. Armies of corporate workers are at his command. Yet at Schwarzman’s new £80 million home in Wiltshire, he has reportedly run into an opponent impervious to his money and reputation: the great crested newt.
According to reports in theFinancial Times, Schwarzman has been complaining about his reptilian adversary to the new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, on account of it complicating building works on Conholt Park. He bought the 2,500 acre, 17th-century estate in 2022.
In July, Wiltshire Council approved his planning application, which includes a new lake, a three-storey wing and conversion of stables into staff accommodation. But as part of the application he has to adhere to a “habitat mitigation and enhancement” plan, which includes provision for newts: checking the site regularly for signs of the creatures and making appropriate concessions as and where necessary. Should any of the animals be found, workers would be required to capture them with “a gloved hand”, and mitigation efforts should continue “for at least 30 years from the completion of the development”.
Even if Schwarzman gets his way, the American tycoon’s newt pain will resonate with many property developers who have run up against one or more of Britain’s protected species.
Since the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, great crested newts, along with hazel dormice, bats and a few other species, have been protected, meaning builders and developers have had to make accommodations not to harm them or their habitats during any works. This legislation has led to thousands of delays and even cancellations over the years.
“The requirements and rules [around protected species] are extensive but to a large extent understood by the industry,” says Steve Turner, executive director of the Home Builders Federation. “The bigger issue is the time taken to process the requirements due to a lack of capacity within local authority planning departments, which can lead to significant delays to projects.”
Schwarzman is far from the first to come unstuck. Last year, Boris Johnson had to account for newts when installing a swimming pool at his home in Oxfordshire. “If we have to build little newt motels to house them on their trips past the swimming pool, then we will,” he wrote at the time. “We will excavate new ponds in which they can breed. We will make a Newtopia!”
This week, a £6 million overhaul of the Key Street roundabout at Sittingbourne in Kent, one of the busiest in the county, was suspended after a dormouse nest was found. Kent County Council said they were waiting on a licence from Natural England, which they expected to receive in September.
Earlier this year, the boxer Tyson Fury was confounded by a bat population; last year Andy Murray also had to deal with a colony of them. The cliffhanger ending of the first series of Vinnie Jones in the Country, the documentary that details the actor and former football hardman’s attempts to become a country squire, hinged on a survey finding the winged mammals in a building he was hoping to renovate. Needless to say, he was not happy.
That critters can put a spanner in the works has even led to accusations that they have been weaponised. ATelegrapharticle in 2015 called newts the “scourge of the building industry”. In 2016, the Conservative peer Lord Borwick alleged that environmentalists were planting newts to confound property developments. “I know developers who suspect strongly that great crested newts have been deliberately placed,” he toldThe Telegraph. “They look around a site and there are no newts, then they look again and there they are; surprise, surprise.”
To go ahead with works, developers need a licence from Natural England, the government advisory body sponsored by Defra. Destruction of habitat can be permitted, but only in certain situations. “To grant the licence, Natural England have to be assured on three different points,” says Paul Franklin, of Thomson Environmental Consultants. “One of those points is that there is no alternative. They have to convince Natural England they can’t just build it somewhere else where there are no newts.
“They also have to convince them there’s an imperative of overriding public interest, i.e., they’re building a housing development or power station or school. It’s relatively easy for those. It can be a bit harder to argue in public interest if you want to build a swimming pool for your mansion. In those cases they might struggle to convince Natural England.”
Around the time of Brexit, there was hope in some quarters that leaving the EU might lead to a relaxation of these laws, but so far nothing has come to pass. Strict planning rules and rigorous ecological surveys remain in place. One development that has made life easier for builders, however, is the introduction of district licensing. Instead of being forced to complete third-party surveys before applying to Natural England, district licences are held by local planning authorities rather than individual developers, which means, as their website puts it, “no surveys, reduced delays, and no unexpected costs.”
Natural England, for their part, argues “sustainable development and nature recovery must go hand in hand”.
“Housing and nature are not competing interests,” says Mike Burke, the organisation’s programme director for sustainable development, citing district level licensing as an approach which works “to benefit both developers and communities.
“We are focused on finding the solutions which work for both people and nature, working in partnership with developers and planning authorities to support the building of new homes and helping them comply with environmental law.”
When it comes to great crested newts, of which there are estimated to be some 400,000 throughout the UK, the rules are clear. They are the largest and rarest animal of their kind in the country, measuring up to 17 cm in length, and it is an offence to deliberately kill, injure or capture them, or damage their breeding sites and homes.
“There are other protected species,” says Dr Tom Tew, the CEO of Nature Space UK, which helps companies with licences. “But newts and bats are the two groups of animals that have been the problem because they are highly protected under British law but also quite widespread.”
Although newts are relatively common, their numbers have fallen dramatically. Where previously surveyors would look for living animals, these days they are more likely to use a DNA survey of a pond. “They’ve declined by 90 per cent in 50 years,” Dr Tew says. “But the paradox is that we have more of them in the UK than nearly anywhere else on the planet. We are a bit of a stronghold for the newt. I think if it was called the Great British Newt people would feel differently. We have a responsibility to look after the little blighter.
“We absolutely need more houses in this country and we can build them without hurting our wildlife,” he adds. “There are ways to do this now, there are solutions in place.” He says it sounds as though Schwarzman was applying the old-fashioned way.
But the billionaire may not have to worry anyway. Consultants have apparently so far reported that Conholt Park was “unlikely to host terrestrial [great crested newts]”, while another survey has not found any of the creatures. Other projects, like the roundabout in Kent, are not so lucky. Rachel Reeves may have plans to cut some red-tape and get Britain building, but it will likely take years of legislative effort. For now, at least, the future is still amphibious.
