Conservation Covenants

 

A conservation covenant is a private, voluntary agreement between a landowner and a responsible body: either the Secretary of State or a body formally designated by them, which can include suitable local authorities and conservation organisations. The agreement requires something to be done, or not done, on the land for a conservation purpose that is in the public good. Conservation covenants have been available in England under Part 7 of the Environment Act 2021 since 30 September 2022.

The point of a conservation covenant is durability. Like a section 106 agreement, it can bind successors rather than only the person who signed it. Unlike a section 106, it does not depend on a planning permission and can stand as a private conservation tool in its own right.

 

 

What a conservation covenant actually is

 

Under section 117 of the Environment Act 2021, a conservation covenant agreement is an agreement between a landowner and a responsible body where the agreement contains provision that is of a qualifying kind, has a conservation purpose, and is intended by the parties to be for the public good. The agreement has to make clear the parties intend to create a conservation covenant, and it must be executed as a deed.

“Provision of a qualifying kind” means the covenant does one of three things: it requires the landowner to do or not do something on the land, it requires the landowner to let the responsible body do something on the land, or it requires the responsible body to do something on the land. A common example is a landowner agreeing to manage a wood in a particular way and to allow public access, with a woodland charity as the responsible body.

The “conservation purpose” is defined broadly. It covers conserving the natural environment or natural resources of land, conserving land as a place of archaeological, architectural, artistic, cultural or historic interest, or conserving the setting of such land. Importantly, conserving here includes protecting, restoring or enhancing, so a covenant can lock in improvement, not just preservation.

 

You need a qualifying estate

 

Not every occupier of land can grant a conservation covenant. The landowner has to hold a “qualifying estate”, which section 117 defines as either the freehold, or a lease originally granted for more than seven years with some of the term still to run. A short-term tenant cannot grant one.

 

Who can be a responsible body

 

A conservation covenant only works if the body on the other side of it is a “responsible body” under section 119. Two kinds qualify: the Secretary of State, and any body designated by the Secretary of State. To be designated, a local authority simply has to be judged suitable; any other body has to be suitable and have at least some of its main purposes, functions or activities relating to conservation. That opens the door to conservation charities, and to public bodies whose remit includes conservation.

The Secretary of State has to publish and keep up to date both the criteria for designation and the list of designated bodies, so it is always possible to check whether the organisation you are dealing with is actually a responsible body. If it is not, you do not have a conservation covenant.

 

How long a conservation covenant lasts

 

This is where a conservation covenant shows its teeth. Under section 121, unless the covenant itself provides for something shorter, an obligation lasts for the “default period”, and where the qualifying estate is freehold, that default period is indefinite. Where the estate is a lease, it runs for the remainder of the lease term.

So a conservation covenant on freehold land is, by default, perpetual. That is a far longer horizon than most planning tools reach, and it is exactly why the covenant has become interesting as a way of securing very long conservation outcomes.

 

It binds successors, and it is a local land charge

 

Section 122 makes an obligation of the landowner binding not just on the person who granted it but on their successors in title. Section 120 makes a conservation covenant a local land charge, which is what makes it findable on searches and enforceable against future owners.

There is a practical catch worth knowing. No obligation binds a successor at all if the covenant was not registered in the local land charges register at the time the successor acquired their estate. Separately, a positive obligation does not bind a successor whose only interest is a lease granted for seven years or less. Registration by the responsible body is therefore what makes the covenant stick against future owners. An unregistered covenant is a much weaker thing.

 

Conservation covenants and biodiversity net gain

 

The reason conservation covenants matter to most developers is biodiversity net gain. Where a development relies on a significant habitat enhancement, that enhancement has to be maintained for at least thirty years, and the legislation lets that thirty-year commitment be secured by a planning condition, a section 106 agreement, or a conservation covenant. Off-site gains have to be secured before the land can go on the biodiversity gain site register, and again a covenant is one of the routes to doing that.

A conservation covenant is often the cleaner fit for BNG on land that has nothing else to do with the planning application: a separate off-site parcel, sometimes in a different ownership or a different area entirely. It does not need to be bolted onto a section 106, and its indefinite default duration comfortably covers the thirty-year minimum.

 

Breach, enforcement and defences

 

Sections 124 to 126 deal with what happens when a covenant is broken. A negative obligation is breached by doing the prohibited thing, or by letting someone else do it; a positive obligation is breached simply by not performing it. The remedies available under section 125 are specific performance, injunction, damages, and an order for payment. A court weighing specific performance or an injunction has to take into account the public interest in the obligation being performed. In the case of a landowner’s breach, a court can even award exemplary damages.

Section 126 gives a landowner some defences: that the breach was beyond their control, that it happened in an emergency to prevent loss of life or injury, or that complying would have breached a statutory control attaching to a later public-purpose designation of the land. The statutory-authority defence also applies.

 

Changing or ending a conservation covenant

 

A conservation covenant is not quite as immovable as its indefinite duration suggests. Under sections 127 to 129, the parties can discharge or modify obligations by agreement, executed as a deed. Where agreement cannot be reached, section 130 and Schedule 18 allow an application to the Upper Tribunal to discharge or modify an obligation.

Two points catch people out. First, the usual route for restrictive covenants, section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925, is expressly shut off for conservation covenants; the Upper Tribunal route under Schedule 18 replaces it. Second, a modification by agreement cannot go so far that, had it been in the original deed, the arrangement would no longer have met the section 117 conditions for a conservation covenant at all.

 

Conservation covenant or section 106: which one?

 

They overlap, but they are not the same instrument, and the differences decide which you reach for.

• a section 106 is a planning obligation, normally tied to a planning permission or appeal and enforceable by the local planning authority. Where it is relied upon as a reason for granting permission, it must satisfy the regulation 122 tests of necessity, direct relationship and scale and kind
• a conservation covenant is a private conservation agreement: it needs no planning permission and no council, it is enforced by whichever responsible body holds it, and its only gatekeepers are the section 117 conditions (qualifying kind, conservation purpose, public good)
• a section 106 out of the council’s hands can only be forced open after five years; a conservation covenant can be modified by agreement at any time, and otherwise only through the Upper Tribunal
• for on-site mitigation tied to a specific consent, a section 106 usually makes sense; for a stand-alone parcel delivering off-site BNG or long-term habitat, a conservation covenant is often the better tool

They are not mutually exclusive. A large scheme may use a section 106 for the on-site obligations and a conservation covenant for an off-site habitat parcel in separate ownership.

 

Should you grant one?

 

The thing to weigh before granting a conservation covenant is the same thing that makes it useful: its permanence. On freehold land the default is indefinite, it binds every future owner, and it will show on searches. That is a serious encumbrance to place on land, and it is not one you can quietly walk back. Discharge needs the responsible body’s agreement or the Upper Tribunal.

So read the deed as carefully as you would read a section 106. Check the responsible body is genuinely on the published list. Understand exactly what the covenant requires, for how long, and what it will do to the value and saleability of the land. If you are on the buying side, treat a conservation covenant on a title the way you would treat any other binding land obligation: find it before you commit, not after.

 

What it costs, and what happens if you disagree

 

There is no council fee for a conservation covenant, because it is not a planning application. Nobody is applying to anybody. The costs are private ones: legal advice and drafting on both sides, and whatever the responsible body charges for taking the covenant on and monitoring it over the years. Where a covenant is being used to secure biodiversity net gain for a development, the planning application it supports carries its own fee, and our planning application fees page explains how those are worked out.

There is no planning appeal either, for the same reason: there is no council decision to appeal against. If you cannot reach agreement with the responsible body about changing or ending an obligation, the route is an application to the Upper Tribunal under section 130 and Schedule 18, not the Planning Inspectorate. Our planning appeals page deals with appeals against council decisions, which is a different thing entirely.

See also our guide to the types of planning application, and to planning agreements generally.

 

Conservation covenants relevant legislation

 

Part 7 of the Environment Act 2021 was brought into force on 30 September 2022 by SI 2022/48. Read the “Changes to Legislation” panel at the top of each page below before relying on the text: legislation.gov.uk flags amendments its editorial team has not yet applied.

• Part 7, Environment Act 2021: conservation covenants (sections 117–139)
• Section 117: conservation covenant agreements and qualifying estate
• Section 119: responsible bodies
• Section 121: duration of obligations
• Section 122: binding successors, and the registration catch
• SI 2022/48, reg. 5(a): commencement of Part 7 on 30 September 2022

Developer contributions & planning agreements

 

Conservation Covenants Page Updated: 25th August 2026