Newts no longer allowed to get in way of new houses

Builders welcome plans to switch focus to saving best habitats, rather than each individual amphibian

SINGLE great-crested newts will no longer be able to derail housing projects and add thousands of pounds in costs to developments.

The species is protected under EU law and as a result developers are obliged to apply for a licence to disturb them before painstakingly rehoming them one by one.

Projects can suffer months of delays – often adding tens of thousands of pounds in costs – if just a single newt is unexpectedly encountered once building work is under way.

But under plans from Natural England, which advises on protecting the species, developers will no longer be required to move individual newts, as long as councils protect the biggest populations and best habitats. Alan Law, chief strategy and reform officer at Natural England, said ponds would be tested for the DNA of great-crested newts to identify where they are most prevalent and should be protected.

“Development will be guided away from these areas towards more suitable sites,” he said.

The DNA mapping, being tested in Woking, Surrey, will allow for quicker and cheaper development in areas where there are found to be fewer newts. Mr Law said it may no longer be necessary to catch and relocate any newts found on the development sites.

“Although this approach means that a number of newts may be lost on development sites, their overall population in the pilot area is expected to be strengthened through habitat improvements so there is no threat to their conservation status,” he said.

If the pilot is successful, Natural England is hoping to roll out the system nationwide. The organisation said it had issued about 1,000 licences to disturb great-crested newts so far this year, the vast majority of which were for development purposes.

Steve Turner, a spokesman for the Home Builders’ Federation, said the plans would “balance protecting valuable wildlife with the provision of desperately needed new homes”.

“In recent years, the existing guidelines have caused considerable delay and consequent business costs to large numbers of sites, in many cases for very marginal benefits in terms of species protection,” he said.

In a recent case in Milton Keynes, a building firm claimed to have had to spend more than £1 million catching 150 newts – delaying the construction of 6,500 new homes by up to a year.

Conservationists also welcomed the plans. Kate Jennings, head of site conservation at the RSPB, said the new approach meant a “more enlightened interpretation of the law”.

Tony Gent, chief executive of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, said it supported the new approach if implemented in a way that delivered benefits for newts as well as for people.