Guidance

Great crested newts: district level licensing schemes for developers

Apply to join a district level licensing scheme to develop land that may affect great crested newts.

From:: Natural England and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Published: 25 July 2022

Applies to England

Documents

Developers: how to join the great crested newt district level licensing scheme

HTML

District level licensing enquiry form

PDF, 423 KB, 7 pages

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District level licensing application form

PDF, 267 KB, 7 pages

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Details

Guidance for developers on how to join a district level licensing scheme to develop land that may affect great crested newts.

If a district level licensing scheme does not operate in your area, you must apply for a mitigation licence to carry out work that affects great crested newts.

Guidance is also available on district level licensing schemes for local planning authorities.

For more information, contact Natural England.

Email: gcndll@naturalengland.org.uk

Published 25 July 2022

Update history

2025-04-01 09:30
Added information in the enquiry form and guidance about a variable fee, which will be charged where a development is categorised as a complex case. Further details about complex cases has been added to the guidance on ‘How to join the great crested newt district level licensing scheme’.Updated the guidance about what survey information ecologists need to submit to Natural England in ‘Ecologists: how to provide pond and waterbody data for district level licensing’:- survey information must have been collected within the past 5 survey seasons- a waterbody must be labelled as ‘P’ if GCN have been recorded at least once over the previous 5 survey seasons

2025-01-30 14:48
We have removed Telford and Wrekin listed under ‘Where district level licensing schemes operate’ and Telford and Wrekin Strategic Newt Licencing listed under ‘Local planning authority-led district level licensing schemes’ as this area is now incorporated into the Shropshire strategy area.

2024-11-01 16:30
Updated the guidance with information on what you should do if you are considering applying for a district level licence for a development site that has ponds within the proposed red line boundary.

2023-12-11 00:30
Added Hertfordshire to the list of Natural England district level licensing scheme areas and Hampshire and West Sussex to the list of NatureSpace district level licensing scheme areas on ‘How to join the great crested newt district level licensing scheme’.

2023-01-30 11:47
Under NatureSpace district level licensing scheme: removed Elmbridge from the list of exclusions in Surrey as the scheme now operates in this area.

2022-12-15 16:52
Uploaded an updated version of the enquiry form and added Cumbria to the list of Natural England-led schemes.

2022-10-24 10:11
Uploaded updated versions of the application and enquiry forms.

2022-10-24 09:30
Updated title, subheading and details to reflect the new guidance added for ecologists. Added new guidance for ecologists on supplying survey data. Updated the guidance ‘Developers: how to join the great crested newt district level licensing scheme’ – included a link to what to include in your GIS polygon shapefile.

2022-08-25 14:52
Updated how to renew your licence. You must request renewal of your licence at least 1 month before it expires.

2022-07-25 14:42
First published.