Yesterday, biodiversity net gain (BNG) legally came into force in England. But what does this mean?
BNG is a way of creating and improving natural habitats by making sure development has a measurably positive impact (‘net gain’) on biodiversity, compared to what was there before development. If a woodland is destroyed by a road, for example, another needs to be recreated either on site or elsewhere.
As part of the Government’s Environment Act building projects for large sites must achieve a 10% net gain in biodiversity or habitat from yesterday, with compliance required for smaller sites from 2nd April 2024.
Viewed as the biggest change to planning regulations in decades, the Government has also launched a publicly available biodiversity gain site register aimed at providing:
➡️ Landowners participating in off-site BNG to apply to register their site;
➡️ Developers to view unallocated off-site habitat enhancements;
➡️ Local planning authorities to view allocated and unallocated habitat enhancements as part of their checks on a submitted gain plan.
Compliance guidance from DEFRA and supporting tools, such as a biodiversity credit calculator, are available: