On 30 January 2020, the Environment Bill 2019-21 was introduced into Parliament. Part 7 of the Bill makes provision for the creation of conservation covenants, implementing in England the recommendations made by the Law Commission for England and Wales in its 2014 report Conservation Covenants. English law is likely, in the near future, to make provision for the creation and enforcement of conservation covenants. A conservation covenant is –

In this chapter, we discuss the nature of conservation covenants and the case put forward by the Law Commission for their introduction. We focus, in particular, upon the following issues. First, we look at the limitations under English law (as it currently exists) on a landowner's ability to undertake lasting conservation obligations to manage their land in a particular way. Secondly, we examine the features that conservation covenants need to have if they are to fill the gap tified in English law. We consider how the Law Commission's draft bill ensures that they have these features and discuss, where relevant, the changes that were made to that bill when it was incorporated into the Environment Bill. Thirdly, we provide an illustration of the possible use of conservation covenants in the context of planning legislation. Finally, we discuss the nature of conservation covenants, whether they will constitute a new form of proprietary interest in land, and why this issue matters.

THE LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT ENGLISH LAW

We start by examining the limitations of English law and some of the considerations that prompted the Law Commission's work on conservation. We do so by reference to the following example.