Considering the role of negotiated developer contributions in financing ecological mitigation and protection programs in England: A cultural perspective

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of ‘Land Value Capture’ in addressing the shortfall in funding to address the biodiversity crisis through a series of interviews with Local Planning Authority officers in England. It finds heterogeneity in their responses to financial austerity and imperatives to deliver development, which heavily influences developer contribution (DC) practice. The response to these pressures differed depending upon localised planning culture and its interrelation with behavioural biases, which defined the scope of officer agency to influence developer contribution outcomes. Most LPAs placed a strong emphasis upon securing real estate investment to drive economic growth and to provide opportunities to secure DC to address socio-economic issues, with the status quo bias contributing towards inertia in policy and practice change. Elsewhere, there was a greater emphasis placed upon reconciling the need to deliver development with the preservation of environmental amenity, enabling officers to carefully frame practice changes, to successfully secure funding for ecological mitigation programs. The paper illustrates the cultural and behavioural challenges in implementing DC policy change to support funding these priorities, whilst this may be overcome by legislative changes, integrating these may be compromised by resource limitations whilst also affecting the existing delivery of public goods.