Rowlands Castle Habitat Bank

Acquisition

In October 2024 Harrow acquired 170acres of greenfield land within South Downs National Park. The sole purpose of the site is to create Barratt Redrow’s first habitat bank and deliver a high-quality scheme of Biodiversity Net Gain and Nitrate Neutrality credits. The mitigation off-set will be available to our internal divisions, and we are equally committed to supporting third-party developers with both their residential and commercial mitigatory requirements. 

Location 

Situated in Rowlands Castle, East Hampshire, the Habitat Bank falls within South Downs National Park LPA and NCA. The Nitrate Neutrality catchment is anticipated to be the East Hampshire Rivers Solent.

Whilst the Habitat Bank will primarily provide off-site mitigation to schemes within the SDNP LPA BNG catchment area, it will also be able to mitigate schemes in neighbouring LPA’s and NCA’s through the Spatial Risk Multiplier (SRM).

The SRM allows credits to be purchased by interested parties with schemes outside of the above BNG catchment area, where credits might otherwise not be available locally. The SRM involves applying a multiplier (e.g 1.33), in accordance with the trading rules, to the number of Biodiversity units that a purchaser will require, to achieve the equivalent necessary gain.

The table below sets out the LPA’s within the catchment area (in full/partial) and also the adjacent NCA’s that could purchase credits through the SRM, starting at x1.33 up to x2.0 for schemes further afield.

Our Vision

Harrow are currently finalising the design for the Habitat Bank, ensuring to both maximise and diversify the credits available whilst prioritising the long-term sustainability of the scheme. We will be looking to register the scheme with Natural England and appoint a Responsible Body as well as looking to explore partnerships with the local natural management bodies.

We are also proud that Harrow’s Habitat Bank will not only reduce the Barratt Redrow Group’s dependency on third-party mitigation schemes to unlock development opportunities, but also support the companies wider ESG credentials.

A mixed distinctiveness of 331 Habitat, 77 Hedgerow credits and 6 Watercourse credits (in the form of grassland, woodland and forest, heathland and shrub and individual trees) are envisaged in addition to 1400 NN credits.

Further details of the scheme will be available on the Habitat Banks designated website once finalised in the coming months. Harrow currently anticipate both BNG and NN credits will be available to the market Winter 2025.