OAKBANK NEWS AND BLOG

The publication this month of a joint survey by Confor, Royal Forestry Society (RFS) and Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has put woodland owners squarely in the spotlight. Its findings make for interesting reading: almost half of the 204 respondents expect to be affected by the April 2026 changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) and nearly 60% say they are now less likely to plant new woodland as a result. Apparently, some h

On 15 April 2026, Defra published responses to two parallel Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) consultations and opened a third on an additional targeted exemption for brownfield residential development. Together, the responses confirm when major infrastructure projects will start drawing on the off-site biodiversity unit market, exempt around half of the smallest residential sites, and broaden the geography in which a land parcel can supply units to a development. What has been con