Natural Capital Law
Our expanding portfolio of natural capital legal work
Natural Capital Legal Team: Natural capital expertise
Our Natural Capital Legal Team is continuing to build its impressive portfolio of legal work for clients operating within the natural capital economy. Our multidisciplinary team consist of the following specialist lawyers:
- Environmental lawyers who are undisputed national leaders in natural environment law. We advise on all aspects of the legal frameworks underpinning compliance drivers of the natural capital economy for all client types (e.g. landowners, developers, intermediaries, local authorities). These frameworks include Biodiversity Net Gain, Habitats Regulations Assessment (including Nutrient Neutrality and Water Neutrality), strategic protected species licensing and the emerging field of Marine Net Gain. We also advise on the structuring and the legal securing of natural capital projects, whether for compliance or voluntary nature markets and on overcoming any difficulties with relevant regulators
- Real estate lawyers who support clients in all property law elements of natural capital projects. This includes detailed due diligence searches, providing advice on appropriate land acquisition strategies and vehicles for entrepreneurial companies or organisations looking to create habitat banks from which credits and units are derived
- Corporate lawyers who advise on the corporate structuring and finance leveraging for new emerging companies in the natural capital arena
- Tax lawyers who advise all client types on the tax implications of natural capital projects
- Commercial contract lawyers who are experts at drafting, reviewing and negotiating nature credit allocation agreements for both compliance and voluntary markets
- Planning lawyers, consultants and advocates who are experts in drafting the legal agreements needed to secure habitat creation and land management changes underpinning nature credits whether through section 106 agreements or conservation covenants (including side agreements). They also carry out due diligence for many client types on these required legal documents when clients are looking to purchase credits
- Property litigation lawyers who deliver dependable and strategic advice on a vast range of issues including breach of covenant disputes, enforcement actions, and legal remedies
- Banking and finance lawyers who advise both lenders and borrowers on funding for a large number of sustainable schemes, including both green and sustainability linked loans.
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Examples of our Natural Capital Legal Team’s work
Freeths has been well known for many years for our expert legal work in natural environment law, advising and training developers, environmental and ecological consultants, objectors, local authorities and other public bodies and non-governmental organisations.
Freeths’ Natural Capital Legal Team was set up in 2022 and has become increasingly sought after by many clients to advise on natural capital projects. The following showcases the various aspects of our natural capital legal work (for more detail, please see the Natural Capital Legal Team brochure linked above):
- Private companies offering biodiversity unit and nutrient neutrality brokering / intermediary services
We provide comprehensive advice on the various structures/ models, and all the underpinning legal documentation, that can be used to set up intermediary schemes between landowners wanting to offer biodiversity units, nutrient credits or other nature credits from habitat banks and developers/ others wishing to buy them. - Private company offering district licensing scheme for Great Crested Newt
We have partnered NatureSpace Partnerships Ltd from the outset in 2016, to allow them to provide, in conjunction with the Newt Conservation Partnership, strategic landscape-scale wetland habitats for Great Crested Newt (GCN) and other wildlife within a compliance scheme used by developers. We have also advised NatureSpace on using similar models to deliver GCN and other wildlife landscape scale solutions for many large national infrastructure projects across the country. A film about our work for NatureSpace is available above. - Setting up organisations as “Responsible Bodies” and providing template conservation covenant agreements and title due diligence processes
We have provided legal advice to a number of organisations to assist them in registering as Responsible Bodies so as to be able to “police” Conservation Covenant agreements underpinning nature projects. We have also provided template conservation covenant agreements to various Responsible Bodies, such as for RSK Biocensus Ltd. - Developers needing advice on BNG and nutrient / water neutrality compliance and credit / unit due diligence
We advise many developers on day-to-day compliance concerns relating to BNG and water/nutrient neutrality issues. We also negotiate the terms of nitrate/phosphate credit and biodiversity unit purchase/sale agreements for a number of clients and conduct due diligence on the suites of documents underpinning the relevant schemes so as to ensure that the credits/ units, once purchased, are acceptable to Natural England/ the local planning authority. - Developers setting up their own habitat banks
We have provided strategic advice to Tarmac Ltd, Wates Developments Ltd and NPL Group on setting up their own / specific habitat banks. We are also currently acting for a solar farm business looking to create and sell biodiversity units from their solar sites. - Developers addressing BNG needs for nationally significant infrastructure projects
We are advising Northumbrian Water Group in connection with the forthcoming mandatory BNG needs for large scale infrastructure projects it is currently working on. - Nature markets governance
We have provided legal advice to the Environmental Markets Board on nature market governance issues and the Board’s set up and operations. - Local authorities setting up a regional strategic offsetting scheme for water neutrality
We have advised the Sussex North Water Certification Scheme on its approach to setting up the scheme and have drafted a number of the Scheme’s underlying agreements. - Private rural landowners setting up habitat banks for BNG / nutrient neutrality and SANG sites
BNG: We are advising multiple individual rural landowners on setting up habitat banks on their land.
Nutrient neutrality: We are advising Hospital of St John, Heytesbury on their phosphate credit sale agreements to Wild Capital.
SANGS: We have acted for The Box Moor Trust, a registered charity, on the creation of a Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG). This scheme is now generating SANG credits, which is unlocking development in the region by alleviating recreational pressure on the Chilterns Beechwoods Special Area of Conservation. - Local Authorities using their own land to set up habitat banks for biodiversity units and nutrient neutrality
The Freeths Natural Capital legal team advises on all aspects of these increasingly popular local authority schemes, including the corporate structure of the habitat bank vehicle (HBV), reviewing and advising on the equity models, site/ title due diligence, operational leases and land maintenance agreements, the creation of the HBV, drafting the necessary conservation covenants to secure the habitat bank and drafting the accompanying allocation agreements/credit purchase agreements for the sale of the off-site biodiversity units/credits and associated environmental law and policy considerations. - Landscape Recovery Schemes
Freeths is currently advising on several Landscape Recovery Schemes across some of the UK’s most iconic landscapes, including complex habitats such as rivers and upland areas: Calder and Colne Landscape Links; Connecting Constable & Gainsborough Country Landscape Recovery Project; and Central Dartmoor Landscape Recovery Scheme. - Third sector organisations setting up habitat banks
We have advised third sector organisations on setting up habitat banks, for example Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment.
Unlocking UK Nature Markets: Overcoming legal and practical challenges in-person event
On 24 September 2025, law firm Freeths ran an in-person event at the Royal Society, London entitled “Unlocking UK Nature Markets – Overcoming Legal and Practical Challenges”. The event’s key purpose was to discuss what can be done to generate further private investment in nature restoration.
The event was attended by approximately 100 representatives from a wide range of organisations including land developers, wildlife and conservation charities, landowners, environmental and sustainability consultants, surveyors and habitat bank operators.
Freeths have produced a Report summarising the key discussions which took place at the event (without attributing specific comments to specific individuals). It is intended that this will contribute to the development of private nature markets, something which is urgently needed to address nature restoration. This Report is linked below:
Watch our previous webinars
Planning & Infrastructure | Part 3 Amendments Explained | What the July 2025 Changes Mean
Planning & Infrastructure Bill Webinar – Key Reforms & Impacts
Charting Sustainable Development: The Government’s Development & Nature Recovery Working Paper
Is Your Land Suitable for a Habitat Bank
Selling Natural Capital Units: Legal Considerations for Landowners
Brokerage & Allocation Agreements: What Intermediaries Must Know
Buying Natural Capital Units: Legal Tips for Developers
Testimonials
GT
"In both phases of this work, we found Freeths to be authoritative in its knowledge of emerging law and regulation applying to UK nature markets. W...
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EnTrade
"Richard Broadbent is a pleasure to work with. Friendly, approachable, quick to grasp the issue and produces work of the highest standard based on...
The Legal 500, 2025
CT
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Meet our team
Nathan Holden
Partner & Head of Local Government
Adrian Hackett
National Head of Taxation Services
Kirstin Roberts FCIWM
Director
Stephanie Gozney
Managing Associate
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