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# Council introduces new charge for developers to help cover cost of monitoring biodiversity contributions
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/council-introduces-new-charge-for-developers-to-help-cover-cost-of-monitoring-biodiversity-contributions/
- Published: 2025-04-16T06:02:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-04-15T07:15:50.000Z
- Description: Lichfield District Council has agreed to introduce new charges for developers to cover the cost of monitoring biodiversity contributions.
- Author: Jonathan Sutton, Local Democracy Reporter
- Tags: Environment, Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 18:49, News

LICHFIELD District Council has agreed to introduce new charges for developers to cover the cost of monitoring biodiversity contributions.

It follows a change int he law requiring all schemes to deliver at least a 10% biodiversity net gain.

To ensure compliance over time, the council must monitor these contributions for a minimum of 30 years — a process that requires significant officer time.

A report to cabinet members warned that not implementing a monitoring fee would be “detrimental” to the council’s finances, especially as the volume of cases is expected to rise in future years.

The charges are intended to cover the long-term cost of officer resources.

Cllr Alex Farrell, cabinet member for housing and the Local Plan, said:

> “There’s usually a minimum period of 30 years to monitor biodiversity net gain habitats – as a result that’s quite an administrative burden on the council monitoring for that length of time.”

Depending on the size and technical complexity of a development, the monitoring fee could be as high as £19,397.24.

The council has five site categories ranging from very small – under one hectare – to large-scale sites of more than 30 hectares, which would require a bespoke fee to be agreed with the developer.