Stour Environmental Credits Ltd (SEC) has appointed Mariam Bajulaiye as its first managing director as the Joint Venture company created by Ashford Borough Council and Canterbury City Council prepares to start trading in nutrient mitigation credits.
Mariam has joined Ashford-based SEC from her role as principal consultant at Resource Futures, where she managed a team of technical consultants to support UK councils on the implementation of new waste management policies, such as net zero strategies.
A Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, Mariam has more than 17 years’ experience in delivering waste and resource efficiency projects for the private sector, government agencies, local authorities, housing associations and social enterprises.
Mariam said: “We look forward to working with mitigation providers and housing developers to enable thousands of much-needed new homes to be delivered across the River Stour catchment area.
“Stour Environmental Credits is a not-for-profit company whose aim is to buy the benefit of a range of nutrient mitigation to sell on as credits to developers to unlock the development of homes delayed due to concerns over the water quality in the Stour and at the Stodmarsh nature reserve downstream near Canterbury.
“I’m working at pace with the SEC Board to finalise our action plan, and we look forward to announcing more details of this very soon via www.stourenvironmentalcredits.co.uk.”
SEC is gearing up to start trading in credits later this year. It went out to soft market testing in January and February 2025 to gauge the range of potential credit-generating opportunities that are being developed by individuals and organisations. As a result, SEC is in discussions with the potential providers of land-use change-based credits.
Following the considerable interest shown by companies looking to provide septic tank upgrades, SEC has advised them that we are moving into an open market tender.
As the company is publicly owned, it is obliged to follow public procurement regulations.
SEC is liaising with potential mitigation providers on the technical and legal information required to be able to secure mitigation for credit provision, to satisfy Natural England, the Environment Agency, the local planning authorities and SEC itself of the efficacy and longevity of the credits.
This will enable housing developers to have full confidence in the temporary and permanent credits provided for sale by the company.
SEC’s website is being developed to enable organisations to register their interest in nutrient neutrality mitigation online.
It is anticipated that a range of credits will become available later in 2025. SEC is working in collaboration with the local planning teams at Ashford Borough Council and Canterbury City Council on our timeline to market initial credits and the pipeline of credits that will be coming online. The plan is to make credits available in tranches.
