Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) has announced a new strategic partnership with Naturum, strengthening its ability to help developers and landowners navigate Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements while supporting high-quality, long-term nature recovery.

The partnership brings together LSH’s national property, planning, land and sustainability expertise with Naturum’s experience in creating and managing high-quality biodiversity units.

With mandatory BNG now an established part of the planning system in England, developers increasingly need early certainty around how biodiversity requirements will be met, particularly where sufficient gains cannot be achieved within a development site.

Through the partnership, LSH will connect clients with appropriate off-site biodiversity solutions and biodiversity units, while also drawing on its planning, sustainability and land expertise to help identify requirements and opportunities at an early stage.

Naturum takes a nature-recovery-led approach to BNG, delivering ecological and social benefits that extend beyond the minimum regulatory requirements. Its approach includes:

• Delivering measurable ecological outcomes – going beyond habitat creation by monitoring ecological outcomes and identifying opportunities to support the recovery of rare and threatened species.
• Connecting communities with nature – engaging local communities and schools to increase awareness of biodiversity, strengthening access and connections to the natural environment.
• Supporting local nature recovery priorities – aligning projects with Local Nature Recovery Strategies to help direct investment towards locations where it can have the greatest ecological value.
• Creating diverse, resilient habitats – developing a varied portfolio of habitat and biodiversity unit types designed to contribute to wider, long-term environmental outcomes.

Ezra Nahome, CEO at Lambert Smith Hampton, said:

“BNG is becoming an increasingly important consideration for developers and landowners, and the challenge is often about finding the right solution in the right location at the right time. Our partnership with Naturum strengthens the practical support we can provide to clients, combining our planning, land and sustainability expertise with access to high-quality off-site biodiversity solutions.

“Importantly, this is about more than meeting a planning requirement. We want to help facilitate biodiversity investment that delivers meaningful, lasting benefits for nature and contributes to wider nature recovery.”

Peter Klimt, Chairman and Co-Founder of Naturum, said:

"We are delighted to be partnering with LSH. Our approach to biodiversity net gain is centred on creating valuable habitats that form part of a bigger picture for nature recovery, while also protecting the viability of development projects. 

"Naturum’s ownership-led model underpins this approach. We are the single, accountable counterparty for the full 30-year term, with end-to-end responsibility for habitat delivery, management, monitoring and reporting. 

“Our sites are strategically located against development demand; and as the scale, resources and diversity of our portfolio continue to grow, it is partnerships like this one with LSH that let us bring that long-term certainty to more developers and make a real difference to the communities we operate in."

The partnership will also create opportunities to identify land suitable for biodiversity enhancement and better connect emerging demand for biodiversity units with potential supply.

LSH will continue to act independently in its professional planning and advisory work, while Naturum will retain responsibility for biodiversity delivery, long-term habitat management, monitoring and associated reporting obligations.