Joining Rachael Forsyth on this week's HortWeek Podcast is John Durnell from the Hampshire Wildlife Trust and Alistair Emery, founder of Land and property investment and consultancy, Kingwell.

John and Alistair are collaborators on significant natural capital scheme at Keyhaven near Milford-on-Sea converting degraded arable farming land into a "high value wildlife site".

Kingwell bought the farm in 2020 and is working with Hampshire Wildlife Trusts to create meadows and grassland, enriching the biodiversity as large-scale BNG habitat.

The land will be transformed in five or six phases which will be offered to developers as BNG credits - "we thought was probably what the market would absorb" Alistair says.

Working alongside local authorities and the Environment Agency in a form of public-private partnership HWT will provide technical support on habitat creation and ongoing management of the land over the next 20 or 30 years. As John says, "frankly if we're going to turn around the sort of fate of wildlife in the UK I think every single sector is really going to have to do its bit."

Alistair talks about the benefits from a land owner's point of view and how it can benefit rural business and community as well as the environment: "Farmers are under a lot of pressure to look at how they can diversify and commercialize their farms, particularly with BPS falling away. It's looking at what are the opportunities that can keep farms going. Environmental schemes such as this are going to play a part in enabling farmers to continue."

They outline the carbon sequestration benefits of soil restoration and way the "nascent" BNG credits market will interact with local construction schemes and planning departments.

Alistair says: "Our planning system is broken. And it's not broken because of things like BNG. It's it's other factors that are driving that.

"Also in the planning system, developers are finding ways to get around BNG, finding exemptions so that they don't have to deliver it onsite or even offsite.

"I think things will change. It's a very new thing. It was only February last year that it became statutory and small developments in April. It takes a long time to get these schemes approved and over the line and supply."

John says: "What I always find frustrating is when the Government infer that lack of supply or BNG or protection for the environment is the thing that's stopping house building. And frankly, that's risible when... if you speak to most developers, they'll admit that it's high interest rates, lack of planning officers, lack of capacity... [and] things like lack of labour.

They discuss the teething troubles with BNG, issues with planning and posit options on how system might be adapted to allow the various agencies to work together more effectively, which means, John insists, public and private partnerships.

They also make the case for larger schemes. Alistair says: "If you have on-site mitigation where you've got fragmented patches of areas within developments that are completely unconnected and going back to the resource problem of the local authorities, then being able to monitor and enforce to ensure that the biodiversity is actually being delivered in those areas, it just doesn't work. It will only work properly if we can do it strategically on large areas of land like what we've got in Keyhaven.

John adds: "Small areas suffer from this thing called edge effect where the edges, problems come in from the edge and the edges tend to be degraded to a certain extent....mitigating at scale strategically is a really, really good model. "

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HortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsor Westland Horticulture.

At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available.

Hear from people who have found their way into their chosen career through different paths, what their job involves and what it means to them.

In this episode Neville Stein catches up with students from Sparsholt College to discuss their recent experience of exhibiting at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and how they felt about it.

As the Colegave Seabrook Foundation supports students studying horticulture, we were very proud to be sponsors of their exhibit and are thrilled at their success.

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This week's guests are Chris Wellbelove (recently appointed managing director) and Steve Buckingham, CEO of Blakedown Landscapes.

Blakedown just won the contract for the Queen Elizabeth garden scheme for The Royal Parks as part of their landscape construction framework. Chris outlines work being done using "environmentally sensitive construction methods" and Steve discusses some of the highlights of their work with The Royal Parks which goes back some 35 years, including the Greenwich Park Revealed scheme which won them a National BALI Award.

The Outdolf Landscape project at RHS Garden Wisley won the firm another BALI Award that year and Chris talks about the pleasure of a free-flowing collaboration made possible by working with the hands-on and knowledgeable Wisley team.

The pair also discuss some of the challenges faced in the landscape sector, including increased and unpredictable lead-in times for materials and plants.

Chris says: "By the time we get to see it it's got a specification it's got planning permission based on a certain set of materials so for us to have much input is difficult", adding "where we are involved at earlier points we do have these discussions about 'where are you purchasing from, is it ethical, is it sustainable, is there a UK alternative?'.

On plans for growth, Chris talks about how contractor design work is now part of every contract they undertake, so the firm took on Ruth Miller as a design manager to manage those design elements efficiently without disrupting the progress of the project. Andy Harris also joined as an operations manager to bolster the management team. Steve adds they are aiming for "organic growth" while looking expand activities outside their traditional territories in the South of England. Nigel Payne has also come on board to help develop Blakedown's grounds maintenance offering.

Among the varied and numerous challenges thrown up in 2024, Steve says the "continually wet period" from autumn 2023 to spring 2024 was one of the hardest.

And a new challenge faced by all landscape contractors is in the planning department. On the one hand, a change in pre-commencement conditions means Blakedown is being involved in signing those off after starting the contract causing delays of several weeks to commencement of works. This is exacerbated by a lack of and high turnover of overstretched planning officers, all adding to delays. "[A project] we were due to start last September, we are only getting on board now [early March]... it has a real effect on your sales forecast and your planning."

Another area of growth is public realm and infrastructure improvements set in motion by the last Government's 'Levelling Up" agenda and Blakedown is embarking on a major project in to transform Canterbury's open spaces including a 'green link' to provide a safe way for pedestrians to walk around the city. Chris is inspired by how it is finding ways to "improve accessiblity but not a the cost of nature".

"For the next five years it is about organic growth...We're not looking to grow hugely; we want to do what we do really well, and keep doing that."

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