Potland Burn site in Ashington set to be turned into nature habitat after £7.5m housing plans fall through

Land at Potland Burn, near Ashington, has been earmarked as a new ‘habitat bank’.

Northumberland County Council approved a £7.5 million loan to its regeneration company, Advance Northumberland, in 2017 to purchase the former opencast mining site and develop it for housing.

But councillors were told last week that the plans had never come to fruition and there was currently no prospect of that loan being repaid.

Conservative councillor Nick Oliver, the council’s cabinet member for finance, told colleagues that the loan had become a “burden” for Advance as he detailed proposals for the Potland Burn Habitat Bank.

The project could see the site used for new woodland, grassland, and watercourses, with developers able to invest into the habitat bank by purchasing credits enabling them to meet legal obligations that require building projects to leave a minimum 10% net gain in biodiversity.

Cllr Oliver told the council’s cabinet shareholder committee: “This is a fantastic way to deal with a business opportunity and an issue with an existing asset.”

He added: “For people who live in that part of the county around Ashington, it creates an improving natural habitat in an area that might have otherwise been built on and an area that has already had its fair share of building over the years.”

A report to the committee states that £5.9 million of the original £7.5 million loan has since been drawn down, but that “subsequent events including planning constraints and a better understanding of the site conditions” led to the housing plans being deemed unviable and the land becoming a “stranded asset” with “no income-generating possibilities”.

None of the loaned money has so far been repaid to the council, but a business case for the habitat bank predicts that it could be fully repaid within five years as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) credits are sold to developers.

It sets out ambitions for the Potland Burn site to become the “leading habitat bank in the North of England” and “generate significant revenue and retained earnings in the order of £20 million to £50 million over the next 30 years”.

The report adds: “Rather than develop a single-stream business unit, it is proposed to establish the Potland Burn Habitat Bank as the first of several AN [Advance Northumberland] Habitat Banks that will be developed to promote the Group’s sustainability ambitions.

"Following establishment of the Potland Burn Habitat Bank, and development of further habitat banks, AN through a newly created sustainability company, Advance Green Futures Limited, will seek to further diversify the business into the areas of the circular economy, carbon sequestration and renewable energy.”