Sectors
The ecology is the same everywhere. What changes is who is asking, what they are accountable for, and how they buy.
commercial
Residential and commercial development
For a housebuilder or commercial developer, ecology is a programme risk before it is an environmental question. The cost of a missed bat window is not the survey fee; it is a year of held land, finance and sales.
What we typically deliver
- Preliminary ecological appraisal at option or pre-application stage.
- Protected species surveys within the relevant window, programmed against your planning submission date.
- Statutory biodiversity metric baseline and post-development calculation, run against successive layouts.
- Biodiversity gain plan and discharge of pre-commencement ecology conditions.
- Nesting bird checks and pre-works sweeps once you are on site.
How we price it: fixed fee per project stage, with milestone billing against defined deliverables.
and energy
Infrastructure and energy
Solar, battery storage, onshore wind, grid connections, water and transport. These are landscape-scale baselines with multi-season survey programmes and a consultee list that starts well before the application.
What we typically deliver
- Constraints and site-selection advice, before the red line is drawn.
- Multi-season baseline programmes — wintering and breeding birds, bat activity across a full season, habitat and botanical survey.
- EcIA chapters for Environmental Statements, and Habitats Regulations Assessment where a designated site is in play.
- Ecological Clerk of Works through construction, with licence-condition compliance recorded.
Live deadline
Mandatory biodiversity net gain is expected to apply to English onshore nationally significant infrastructure projects from 2 November 2026. Baseline condition assessment needs the growing season. Read our note on the deadline.
How we price it: day rates and time-and-materials against an agreed scope, or fixed fee per defined workstage where the scope is stable.
local authorities
Local authorities and the public sector
Planning authorities need ecological information reviewed quickly and consistently, by someone who will put a clear recommendation in writing and stand behind it. Estate-holding public bodies need the same service developers do, plus the s.40 biodiversity duty.
What we typically deliver
- Independent review of submitted ecological information, with a recommendation the case officer can rely on.
- Habitats Regulations Assessment for plans and projects.
- Local nature recovery and biodiversity duty support.
- Survey and advisory service for the authority's own land and property.
- Framework and call-off capacity through public procurement portals.
How we price it: framework day rates, or a fixed monthly advisory retainer where a predictable volume of reviews is expected.
Which of these is your problem?
Tell us the site, the stage and the date you are working back from. We will tell you what is achievable in the time you have.