We are a significant landowner in the South East, owning or managing 33 sites of Special Scientific Interest, a National Nature Reserve, two local nature reserves and numerous Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Protecting and enhancing these areas is key to maintaining a vibrant and flourishing environment.
We have a dedicated team committed to measuring and enhancing the biodiversity on these site through our ongoing conservation work.
Working with Natural England we are committed to providing net biodiversity gains during this five year period.
Due to the time it takes to see results in this area, we will not be fully assessed on this new target until 2024/25 where we could receive an outperformance reward, or underperformance penalty.
Despite this, we are keen to drive success in this measure forward and therefore had a target to undertake improvements on 1,268 hectares of land during 2022/23.
How have we performed?
Our year three performance has resulted in 1,514 hectares of our landholdings being proactively managed for biodiversity. This figure exceeds our target for year three.
Our customer research continues to show that biodiversity is an area which is important to customers. For this reason, we have chosen to invest time and resources in to furthering this area.
Highlights during the past year include working in partnership with Kew at Wakehurst Place to supply and install two sand martin nesting banks and two tern nesting rafts on the Wakehurst arm of Ardingly Reservoir.
Other highlights include the owners of a smallholding next to the disused Cottage Hill drinking water storage reservoir site, taking on the management of this site under a five-year tenancy agreement. The agreement includes specific stipulations to control bracken and light grazing, when deemed appropriate, to help increase biodiversity.
We have seen the continued effectiveness of the Biodiversity Delivery Ranger role in ensuring the successful delivery of site management plan outputs on the ground across our estate to increase biodiversity.
The programme for delivery in year four has been set out and the team mobilised to ensure that this work is delivered to schedule.