Lack of protections afforded to wildlife under housing developer rules

Natural England gives housing developers free reign to disturb protected species such as Hazel Dormice and Great Crested Newts

17 November 2025: A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Natural England has uncovered the lack of protection given to European Protected Species (EPS) in the UK. EPS are the most protected species of animals in the UK and include flagship species such as Hazel Dormice, Otters and Great Crested Newt.

An EPS mitigation licence is required by housing developers if they discover an EPS on-site and will need to capture, injure, kill, or disturb an EPS.

The FOI request discovered that in the last 5 years, 8384 EPS mitigation licences were granted by Natural England across the UK, and only 9 licences were turned down, meaning approximately 99.9% of licences are approved.

The licences were granted across the UK, with 731 granted in Hampshire impacting bats, dormice, Great Crested Newts, smooth snakes and sand lizards. Other areas where large numbers of licences were granted were Devon (581 granted), Somerset (462 granted) and Surrey (354 granted).

The FOI request was submitted by Sussex resident Ingrid Marson, who was interested in finding out how much protection rare species actually have.

“This shows the minimal protection given to flagship species in the UK,” said Ingrid. “All you have to do is file a form with Natural England and you can then kill it or destroy its habitat.”

EPS have full protection under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, and include bats, dormice, natterjack toads, otters, newts, smooth snakes and sand lizards.