Small Habitat Activity Licences

For habitat enhancement* activity and associated survey and monitoring activity that interact with the foreshore and seabed, within The Crown Estate’s ownership, permissions will be required before the activity can begin.  

We have introduced a simplified licencing product (the Small Habitats Activity Licence, or SHAL) which enables short-term (usually less than 5 years), non-commercial (including but not limited to the trading of natural capital credits e.g. carbon, biodiversity net gain).  enhancement activities seeking to trial different methodologies.  

This is in addition to any consents required from the relevant statutory authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  We’ve worked hard to streamline the administrative burden for our customers as much as possible by aligning our requirements to the statutory consenting process so that resources can be prioritised for actual project delivery. 

We absorb the direct and indirect costs associated with the legal due diligence required prior to granting seabed/foreshore access for this non-commercial activity, ensuring practitioners can dedicate their resources to restoration outcomes rather than administrative process.  

*Enhancement is the overarching term given to activities that aim to improve the quality or extent of a habitat. This includes activities to recover, restore or create habitat.  

Securing a Small Habitat Activity Licence from The Crown Estate

To start the process of securing a small habitat activity licence please email a completed form to marine.nature@thecrownestate.co.uk which can be downloaded here. This mailbox is monitored by the Nature & Environment Team, who will work with applicants to find the most appropriate form of permission and to enable activities wherever possible.   

This form serves as a comprehensive template for submitting details related to your project. It guides applicants through providing essential contact information, activity specifics, and supporting documentation to facilitate agreement processing. 

• Contact and Activity Details Required: Applicants to provide detailed contact information including names, job titles, and organisational details, alongside activity-specific data such as location, marine plan area, and whether the application is for a new agreement, renewal, or other.    

• Activity Description and Site Information: The form requests descriptions of proposed and current habitats or species, project plans including objectives and key milestones, and classification of site types such as restoration, donor, or control sites. GIS shapefiles for all relevant sites must be submitted.    

• Risk, Methods, and Monitoring: Applicants should include risk assessments, method statements, details on equipment and materials used, and monitoring plans including data collection and sharing strategies.    

• Consents, Environmental Designations, and Stakeholder Engagement: Information on consents required from statutory authorities (or not if that is the case) to be provided being as specific as possible, environmental designations intersecting the activity area or nearby and stakeholder or community engagement efforts to be provided.  

• Supporting documents such as risk assessments and biosecurity plansare also requested.    

The information on this form will be used to complete our proximity and conflict check process.  This check, along with the resolution of any identified conflicts and completion of any statutory environmental assessments and consents, must be completed before permissions can be given for a project. Further details about this process are available on our Licensing & guidelines webpage available here.