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Arup advances discussions to take ownership of EnTrade

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:25:43 GMT

Arup advances discussions to take ownership of EnTrade

EnTrade, the UK's leading marketplace for nature recovery and currently owned jointly by Arup and YTL UK, has announced proposals for Arup to take full ownership of the business.

EnTrade is the pioneer in creating market-based solutions that mobilise private capital to support nature recovery and unlock economic growth. EnTrade has developed a unique platform to facilitate these markets and has successfully run two pilot markets, delivering £1.36 million in environmental credit trades to fund new habitat creation, water quality improvements and enable housing developers to meet their environmental obligations in an efficient and transparent way.

The EnTrade board has praised the pioneering work of the team, and particularly the leadership of Managing Director, Guy Thompson. Under the proposed arrangements, the existing team will move on to new opportunities, with the EnTrade business being taken forward by Arup.

Tom Wilcock, Managing Director of Arup UKIMEA, said:

"We've been very pleased to play our part alongside YTL UK in the development of EnTrade and, with YTL UK rationalising its investment, we are excited by the opportunity to lead and shape the next stage of its future."

As part of these changes, the Environmental Markets Board, which provides independent oversight of catchment markets, will be established as a separate legal entity to support integrity, transparency and good governance across environmental markets nationwide.

Notes to editors:

EnTrade's demonstration Bristol Avon and Somerset Catchment Markets have led to significant environmental improvements, with 3.2 hectares of land protected under nature-based project agreements, backed by private investment of over £1.3 million.
EnTrade has recently completed an assessment as one of the early adopters of the British Standards Institution's pilot of its overarching Nature Investment Standard.
EnTrade became an independent company in Joint Venture between YTL UK and Arup in February 2025, having been incubated as an independent business unit of Wessex Water Ltd since its genesis in 2018.
The Environmental Markets Board was created to provide arms-length oversight of EnTrade's demonstration markets, in the light of lessons from the Voluntary Carbon Market.

Find more information on the work and future of the Environmental Markets Board .

EnTrade welcomes government’s support for growing nature markets

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 20:16:00 GMT

EnTrade welcomes government’s support for growing nature markets

EnTrade, the UK’s leading marketplace for nature recovery, has welcomed the government’s proposals for a new approach to housing and infrastructure development.

The proposed reforms will use developer contributions to deliver environmental improvements at a scale driving much-needed private finance into nature recovery. The government is seeking views on the proposals and how housing and infrastructure development can meet its environmental obligations and contribute to nature recovery.

The government stated that it is committed to “Growing nature markets and harnessing these to support the delivery of regulatory obligations.”

As a high integrity Environmental Market Operator, EnTrade is delivering verified nature based projects to approved standards, ensuring projects deliver robustly assured outcomes. EnTrade supports the government’s commitment in the policy paper to continue to develop high-integrity standards for nature markets with the British Standards Institution.

What does this mean for the Somerset Catchment Market?

The government has made it clear that any reforms will be expected to work alongside private initiatives such as the Somerset Catchment Market, and says: ”We expect delivery bodies to work with private providers and land managers wherever possible to ensure competition and innovation in securing impactful and good value for money interventions, including necessary land use and land management changes.”

The Somerset Catchment Market is already developing a pipeline of new wetlands and woodlands to provide nutrient mitigation to meet current demand from housing development. Developers can Register with EnTrade now for Phosphorus Credits for developments in Somerset due to commence in 2025.

Planning Reform and legislative changes will take time. The current high demand for nutrient mitigation makes the Somerset Catchment Market an attractive opportunity for farmers and other landowners to secure competitive price for their nature-based projects over the next few years and for developers to secure the Credits they need to meet their obligations and start building in 2025.

These proposals for planning reform are not expected to have any substantive impact on the implementation of mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG).

Amy Coulthard, Market Development Director, EnTrade said:

“We are working with landholders across our markets, including the Bristol Avon Catchment Market, to ensure there is a strong supply of Biodiversity Units from a range of different Project types such as wood pasture, wildflower meadows and hedgerows. We will be opening the third round for developers to bid for Biodiversity Units in early January.”

EnTrade is enabling developers to get building and meet their environmental obligations now. Developers buying Biodiversity Units or Nutrient Credits through the markets fund projects that deliver against local nature recovery strategies including the recently published West of England Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

To find out more about EnTrade’s other markets visit the EnTrade website

For media enquiries, please contact:

Kevin Biggs: 07917 651205 communications@entrade.co.uk

Notes to Editors

EnTrade is a world-leading solution to the growing recognition that there is a finance gap to deliver governments’ commitments to restore nature. EnTrade has learned the lessons from the Voluntary Carbon Market to design a high integrity market-based solution that is transparent and science-based and enables fair and efficient trading between landholders and businesses.

The Somerset Catchment Market is an environmental services market that aims to accelerate the delivery of nature-based projects such as the creation of new woodlands and wetlands across Somerset. For more information visit https://www.somersetcatchmentmarket.uk

Environmental markets operated by EnTrade are overseen by an Environmental Markets Board. For more information visit https://www.environmentalmarketsboard.org.uk

The Somerset Catchment Market was developed through a collaboration that included:

EnTrade; https://www.entrade.co.uk/
the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute at the University of Exeter; https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/leep/
Wheatley Young Partners; https://wheatleyyoung.partners/

The Bristol Avon Catchment Market is a world-leading approach to nature recovery that:

delivers verified environmental outcomes,
secures a good deal for landholders with nature-based projects, and
ensures value-for-money for ethical buyers of environmental services.

For more information visit: www.bristolavoncatchmentmarket.uk

The West of England Nature Recovery Strategy is available via the West of England Combined Authority:

The Local Nature Recovery Strategy and Toolkit - West of England Combined Authority

EnTrade is part of the YTL Group UK – which includes YTL Developments, currently developing Brabazon new neighbourhood on the former Filton Airfield in north Bristol, the Brabazon Hangars, also at Filton, which will be turned into a live music and entertainment venue, YTL Construction, Wessex Water, GENeco, Wessex Searches, water2Business and Turnbull.

Market Round 2 - Results Announced

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 12:38:41 GMT

Market Round 2

Market Round 2 - Results Announced

The Somerset Catchment Market has successfully settled a second Market Round.

Read the Market Announcement, Market Settlement Report and Press Release here

First Market Round Results Announced

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 11:01:34 GMT

First Market Round Results Announced

The Somerset Catchment Market has achieved a key milestone with the announcement of the results of the first market round.

Read the Market Announcement, Market Settlement Report and Press Release here

Paying farmers to create woodland and wetland is the most cost-effective way to hit UK environment targets, study suggests

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 07:28:17 GMT

British Ecological Society:

Paying farmers to create woodland and wetland is the most cost-effective way to hit UK environment targets, study suggests

Study of farmer preferences shows that turning whole areas of farmland into habitats comes with half the price tag of integrating nature into productive farmland, whilst delivering the same biodiversity and carbon targets.

Full British Ecological Society article available here

South Somerset District Council approves phosphate credit schemes

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 12:09:38 GMT

South Somerset District Council approves phosphate credits schemes

On 3rd November, South Somerset District Council (SSDC) District Executive discussed a report ( Item 7 ) regarding proposals for schemes to release phosphate (P) credits within the Somerset Levels and Moors Ramsar catchment, and unlock stalled housing developments.

The District Executive agreed:

the structure that would be required to ensure that any third-party nutrient neutrality credit market will provide appropriate safeguards to both the Council (as the Competent Authority) and Natural England (as the relevant adviser), to ensure land-use projects are designed to an appropriate specification, and provide certainty of delivery of the agreed P credits,
to delegate to lead officers the authority to confirm to landowners who can demonstrate that they can meet the provisions set out in this report that their credit sales will be accepted as providing an appropriate solution to securing nutrient neutrality.

We have developed the Somerset Catchment Market so it can be applied as a third-party nutrient credit market, using a collaborative and transparent approach with SSDC and Natural England. We are confident we can comply with the requirements set out in the SSDC decision and will shortly receive confirmation from SSDC that they will accept nutrient neutrality credits acquired through the Somerset Catchment Market. We plan to formalise this with SSDC over the next few weeks.

Next Steps

We will continue to work with our initial pipeline of suppliers to ensure that we have strong project offers in the Parrett eligible area. In December, we will begin wider engagement with landholders, including suppliers of short-term projects such as Arable Reversion that can provide bridging credits, and potential wetland suppliers in the Brue eligible area.

We will write to developers, who have previously expressed an interest (EOI) in buying phosphorus credits to unlock their developments in South Somerset, to ask them to confirm their interest in using the Market, and to confirm the currency of their phosphorus credit requirements. Developers will be asked to confirm that their budget calculator submissions are up to date.

For developers who were unable to express an interest via the Market’s initial EOI portal, the option to use the Market still remains open. Interest can be signalled by sending details of your requirements by email to david.baxter@entrade.co.uk When expressing an interest, you should include a summary of the development affected (including the planning application reference) and attach a completed Phosphorus Budget calculator.

When will the Market be open?

We will be working over the coming weeks to finalise the legal and governance processes that will allow us to run the first Market Round. This will enable us to share the Market Rules and template legal agreements with potential Market participants. We aim to share these key documents before Christmas. We will give potential participants time to consider all the information before they decide to formally register and make their offer. This means we expect the first Round of the Market will open for offers to be made in February, with market settlement and contracting before the end of March. We anticipate that subsequent Market Rounds will occur at intervals of four to six months.

New measures to reduce water pollution announced

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 12:52:14 GMT

New measures to reduce water pollution announced

The Government has outlined new plans to reduce water pollution including:

New legal duties on water companies to upgrade wastewater treatment works by 2030 in ‘nutrient neutrality’ areas
A new Nutrient Mitigation Scheme to be developed and delivered by Natural England

Interaction with existing and planned mitigation schemes

The new Nutrient Mitigation Scheme will be designed to complement existing activities, such as the Somerset Catchment Market.

The Government has stated that:

“The Nutrient Mitigation Scheme will create new wetlands and woodlands in partnership with green groups and other privately led nutrient mitigation schemes.”

“Natural England will work with, not crowd out, new and existing private providers and markets for nutrient offsets wherever they exist.”

What does this mean for the Somerset Catchment Market?

The Somerset Catchment Market is already developing a pipeline of new wetlands and woodlands to provide nutrient mitigation to meet current demand from housing development

The Government has made it clear that the new Natural England Scheme will work in partnership with initiatives such as the Somerset Catchment Market, and will be designed to complement rather than crowd out these schemes.

The current high demand for nutrient mitigation makes the Somerset Catchment Market an attractive opportunity for farmers and other landowners to secure competitive price for their nature-based projects over the next few years.

The amount of nutrient mitigation developers are required to deliver will reduce from 2024.

Councils release Phosphate Budget Calculator

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 12:18:27 GMT

Councils release Phosphate Budget Calculator

The phosphate budget calculator can be used on proposed developments across Somerset.

It will provide a transparent and rapid calculation of net phosphate loading from developments, including phosphate offsetting calculations for on or off site locations.

The calculator has been approved by Natural England and it can therefore be used to provide a standardised and transparent decision making tool for the Local Planning Authority and Developers.

Further information is available here

cd25dd24

Arup advances discussions to take ownership of EnTrade

Arup advances discussions to take ownership of EnTrade

EnTrade welcomes government’s support for growing nature markets

EnTrade welcomes government’s support for growing nature markets

Market Round 2 - Results Announced

Market Round 2

Market Round 2 - Results Announced

First Market Round Results Announced

First Market Round Results Announced

Paying farmers to create woodland and wetland is the most cost-effective way to hit UK environment targets, study suggests

British Ecological Society:

﻿ Paying farmers to create woodland and wetland is the most cost-effective way to hit UK environment targets, study suggests

South Somerset District Council approves phosphate credit schemes

South Somerset District Council approves phosphate credits schemes

Next Steps

When will the Market be open?

New measures to reduce water pollution announced

New measures to reduce water pollution announced

Interaction with existing and planned mitigation schemes

What does this mean for the Somerset Catchment Market?

Councils release Phosphate Budget Calculator

Councils release Phosphate Budget Calculator

Paying farmers to create woodland and wetland is the most cost-effective way to hit UK environment targets, study suggests