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?
Our customer research continues to show that biodiversity net gain is an area which is important to customers. For this reason, we have chosen to invest time and resources in to furthering this area.
A key highlight for this year was our biodiversity outputs were recognised and noticed by members of the public. In August 2023 the observation below appeared on the sightings page of the Sussex branch of Butterfly Conservation.
"It was nice to see a Wall today opposite Brightling Observatory - only the second one I have seen in North East Sussex. Also seen at the same spot - Common Blue, Small Copper, Painted Lady, Small White plus many Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown. What is notable about these sightings is the huge increase in butterfly numbers this year compared to previous years and that is entirely down to a change in the cutting regime. This is a very small area of species rich grassland visible from on two sides from the road and footpath and is surrounded by heavily grazed farmland. In previous years it has always been cut at least twice between May and July and you could count the number of butterflies at this time of year on one hand. Credit to South East Water, who own the site, and have left much of it uncut through spring and summer this year (and the wildflower signs suggest this will be the case in future) - a great example of how a small change can make a huge difference to biodiversity." Sussex Butterflies.org
These sightings highlight the effectiveness of simple changes in management. This site will be resurveyed in 2024.
The programme for delivery in year five has been set out and the team mobilised to ensure that this work is delivered to schedule.
