Environment Bank

[Hfd Cattle]

A company in York is advertising for agricultural land to turn into Environment habitats .
They trade as The Environment Bank .
Has anyone had any dealings with this idea ?

 

[steveR]

A company in York is advertising for agricultural land to turn into Environment habitats .
They trade as The Environment Bank .
Has anyone had any dealings with this idea ?

Interesting talk from this or a similiar company at Groundswell last year.

I came away unconvinced. They essentially want land to allow builders to offset they destruction of habitat.

I spoke with a senior bod from a local (but large) builder and he told me that at present, local Planners were not getting too wound up on this topic, but they anticipated this would change.

There is a thread somewhere here on this topic.

 

[Hfd Cattle]

Interesting talk from this or a similiar company at Groundswell last year.

I came away unconvinced. They essentially want land to allow builders to offset they destruction of habitat.

I spoke with a senior bod from a local (but large) builder and he told me that at present, local Planners were not getting too wound up on this topic, but they anticipated this would change.

There is a thread somewhere here on this topic.

Searched for topic but couldn't find one .
Thanks for reply .

 

[Werzle]

I wonder if its abit like the reed bed credits builders will have to buy so they can build in areas with high phosphate levels.

 

[Poncherello1976]

Spoke to them at LAMMA. Ties the land up for 30 years or so. Pay about £750/800 a Ha. This includes a fee to manage the land. Rising by 2.5% per year. Not Index linked.
I am out. Not enough £ to tie the land up for 30 years.
Generally at the moment looking for arable to land to convert to pasture/wildflowers.

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

This kind of thing was mentioned at the last AHDB meeting I went to. I'll try to find where I posted about it.

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

Biodiversity net gain metrics and units.

Currently listening to a AHDB talk on this. Natural England Bod doing the talk. Lots being mentioned that is ringing alarm bells. 30yr legal responsibility agreements. Measured, monitored by planning authority Initial assessment measurement, by an ecologist rather than land owner...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[Huno]

Leave well alone! Even the pension funds are leaving well alone... It is a rip off ponzi scheme

 

[Chris123]

Spoke to them at LAMMA. Ties the land up for 30 years or so. Pay about £750/800 a Ha. This includes a fee to manage the land. Rising by 2.5% per year. Not Index linked.
I am out. Not enough £ to tie the land up for 30 years.
Generally at the moment looking for arable to land to convert to pasture/wildflowers.

£750 ha per year or as a one off payment?
a one off amounts to £10 acre a year over the 30 years not going to be any takers at that

 

[Poncherello1976]

Per year/per Ha would be the following payments:
£200ish as a rent to the farmer
£550 ish as a payment for managing the area. Depending on what might need doing, maybe a touch more than that, (but not much!)
I think they do all the planting etc of wildflowers/trees, whatever is required.
So £750 is per ha/per year. Or £300 per acre per year.
Not index linked only goes up at 2.5% per year. Which at the moment is pretty rubbish.
Locked up for 30 years. IMO they need to be offering almost Solar Panel numbers to make it worth while! But i can not see that happening!

 

[Still Farming]

Possibly worth it if their paying more than for housing???

 

[Landrover]

I've looked into this and as far as I'm concerned someone is going to make alot of money from it, and it's not the farmer ! Very much like what I suspect the carbon credits thing is going to be !

 

[serf]

As above with these green things Ponzi scheme sounds about the the sum of it !

 

[Hfd Cattle]

We rent a couple of patches of ground off a major housing developer . Had to meet the agent yesterday and I mentioned these 'environment bank' schemes. His words were..." only one gets rich out of it ...and it won't be you or us , it costs the developer a fortune and it doesn't drift down to the landowner"

I questioned him on going direct to Farmers and working out a scheme to which he said "well that's a possibility "

 

[Coximus]

A company in York is advertising for agricultural land to turn into Environment habitats .
They trade as The Environment Bank .
Has anyone had any dealings with this idea ?

PM me - I have the first BNG site in yorkshire actually completed - The environment banks offer is very low financially, and not very flexible from a farming POV - the upside is they are well capitalized and very short of sites so you stand a very good chance of doing a deal.
They are in effect middlemen - your local landagent will be better placed to do a deal - they will only be taking a fee for their time and a % of the deal - a one off.
The E bank will be doing the deal themselves, and leasing your land. They could negotiate a deal with the buyer anything from 2 to 10x your price. - The price of a site will vary wildly depending on location, local demand and also whos buying - A housebuilder, industry, or Civils.

 

[Coximus]

We rent a couple of patches of ground off a major housing developer . Had to meet the agent yesterday and I mentioned these 'environment bank' schemes. His words were..." only one gets rich out of it ...and it won't be you or us , it costs the developer a fortune and it doesn't drift down to the landowner"

I questioned him on going direct to Farmers and working out a scheme to which he said "well that's a possibility "

Very wise words - the schemes exist to make banks rich - and give local councils control over thousands of acres of land. I have had land designated a "local nature recovery zone" without any consultation as part of local council plans - this has resulted in currently unenforceable obligations thrown at me.

 

[Clive]

My understanding is that as well as the index linked annual payment there is also a sizeable initial, payment. for these BNG schemes ? ........ 20k/ac plus I've been told ? if thats right then its a bit of a no brainer

 

[Chris F]

They wrote an article in the latest Direct Driller - you can read it here:

Direct Driller Magazine Issue 20

Welcome to the 5th Anniversary issue of Direct Driller / Normal Farming magazine. When we started the magazine, we really didn’t know what to call it. We knew it should focus on soil health, reduced cultivation, conservation agriculture (remember when it was called that), sustainability...

issuu.com

 

[steveR]

We rent a couple of patches of ground off a major housing developer . Had to meet the agent yesterday and I mentioned these 'environment bank' schemes. His words were..." only one gets rich out of it ...and it won't be you or us , it costs the developer a fortune and it doesn't drift down to the landowner"

I questioned him on going direct to Farmers and working out a scheme to which he said "well that's a possibility "

The local Developer I spoke to, thought the direct approach had appeal, the issue was in management of the site, 10 years down the line...

My view, is that if the renumeration/annum is satisfactory, there will be no problems. No payment... Contract ended.

The trouble is, almost certainly NE will have their gimlet eyes on these blocks of land... and will designate them to prevent them being farmed again.

 

[Huno]

The local Developer I spoke to, thought the direct approach had appeal, the issue was in management of the site, 10 years down the line...

My view, is that if the renumeration/annum is satisfactorty, there will be no problems. No payment... Contract ended.

The trouble is, almost certainly NE will have their gimlet eyes on these blocks of land... and will designate them to prevent them being farmed again.

Agreed other wise how will NE justify their existence without some new nature reserves to laud over and create into a bureaucratic nightmare! If you sign up to BNG 30yr contracts you must accept that you might devalue farmland by 30% in the long run.. not a great investment