The ‘District Level Licensing’ scheme will create and restore a network of ponds, providing vital habitat across the two counties.

The scheme takes payments from housing and other developers and invests them in four times the number of ponds that were impacted by their construction projects.

Previously, landowners or housing developers in Norfolk and Suffolk had to apply for a licence before building on or around the places where newts live.

Currently, developers can make a simple application and payment to join their local, area-wide scheme.

The one-off payment covers the creation, restoration, maintenance, and monitoring of ponds in the area for 25 years, in locations specially selected to provide the best habitat for great crested newts. 

The award-winning, evidence-based scheme will help support and link up local populations of the yellow-bellied amphibian.

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Martin Horlock, environment manager at Norfolk County Council, said: “Developers using this approach will bring about lots of high-value [and] secure ponds for newts, which are well managed and monitored for the long term. 

“The scheme offers developers certainty in terms of costs and timescales, and it means developments that have been through planning will not be held up by protracted post-planning licensing.”

Hannah Thacker, area manager for Norfolk and Suffolk at Natural England, commented: “This initiative is a fantastic example of how working in partnership at a landscape scale can provide benefits for our largest species of newt, our local communities and other wildlife, as well as reducing the burden for developers — a true win-win.”

Norfolk and Suffolk are the latest areas to launch a district level licensing scheme, joining 77 others including Kent, Cheshire, Essex, Shropshire and Greater Manchester.