Marine Conservation Zone
Statutory seabed and shoreline protection
A Marine Conservation Zone protects a stretch of sea, seabed and shoreline for named marine wildlife, habitats or geology. Defra designates zones in English waters, advised by Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Wales and Northern Ireland designate their own zones. Scotland has none; its equivalent is the Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area.
What This Means
The zone stops at the shore, so it reaches nothing you do to the house or garden. Extensions, decorating and landscaping follow normal planning and building rules. Expect tighter rules if the property also sits in a conservation area or National Landscape. The zone bears instead on works reaching the foreshore or the water, such as a mooring or slipway. Those need a marine licence, checked against the zone's protected features. Lenders and insurers price flood and coastal erosion here, not the zone. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Practical Advice
- Ask your conveyancer to confirm from the title plan whether the property owns any foreshore inside the zone.
- Ask your conveyancer to identify the foreshore owner, often the Crown Estate, and any rights the property holds over it.
- Apply for a marine licence before building any mooring, jetty or slipway: to the Marine Management Organisation in England, Natural Resources Wales in Wales, or DAERA in Northern Ireland.
- Ask the seller for the marine licence and conservation consent covering any existing mooring, jetty or slipway.
- Commission a flood and coastal erosion assessment from your surveyor before you make an offer.
Key Points
- Skomer Marine Conservation Zone, off Pembrokeshire, protects named features including grey seal, pink sea fan, eelgrass and sponge communities.
- Lundy, in the Bristol Channel, became the first Marine Conservation Zone in England in 2013.
Additional Information
Each zone's boundary and its list of protected features are published as open map data by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and by each nation's conservation body. Comparing that boundary against the title plan is what settles whether any part of this property lies inside the zone.