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 1,343 hectares of land during 2023/24.
How have we performed?
We’ve outperformed our year five target for biodiversity and improved another 23 hectares of company-owned land to benefit wildlife and biodiversity in 2024/2025.
This brings the total area now proactively managed for biodiversity to 1,673 hectares, or 77 per cent of company land – that’s up from 54 per cent of land managed for biodiversity at the start of AMP7 in 2020.
This means we have exceeded our five-year target by 213 hectares, an area equal to the size of around 300 football pitches. We are proud to have achieved all the targets set in this challenging project and to have implemented management plans for 214 sites and a range of habitats.
