Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
Nationally important wildlife or geology
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is land notified as nationally important for its wildlife, plants, habitats or geology. Natural England notifies them in England, Natural Resources Wales in Wales and NatureScot in Scotland. Northern Ireland has no SSSIs; the equivalent there is the Area of Special Scientific Interest. Each site's notification lists the features protected and the operations that need consent.
What This Means
The designation aims at the land and what lives on it, not at the house. Living here, decorating and repairing carry no extra consent. If part of the title falls inside the SSSI boundary, you inherit a real duty. Listed operations such as clearing scrub, draining land, changing ground levels or building need written consent first. Land merely near the site carries no such duty, though the planning authority can ask for a habitat survey with an extension. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Practical Advice
- Ask your conveyancer to confirm whether the title falls inside the SSSI boundary or simply sits near it.
- Ask Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, NatureScot or the Northern Ireland Environment Agency for the site's list of operations needing consent.
- Serve notice before any listed operation on land inside the boundary, and allow up to four months for a decision in England and Wales.
- Ask the local planning authority whether an extension here would need a habitat survey before you pay for drawings.
Key Points
- England has just over 4,100 SSSIs covering around 8 per cent of the country, from a single bat roost to The Wash at 62,000 hectares.
- Silence is not consent: if no decision arrives within four months of the notice, you may treat consent as refused.
Additional Information
Scotland runs a separate regime. NatureScot notifies SSSIs there under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, so the consent procedure and the four-month rule described here, which apply in England and Wales, do not carry across unchanged.