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Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is a new legal requirement for most planning applications in England; both small scale and major project developments, although some minor developments remains exempt.
It is a principle that seeks to ensure projects undertaken by developers leave the environment in a measurably better state for biodiversity than it was before by 10%.
Biodiversity Net Gain is a process that ensures the overall improvement of habitats after any real-estate development.
Biodiversity offsetting involves mitigating any habitat loss caused by a new development. The offset calculator estimates the number of ‘biodiversity units’ required to achieve net gain. However, it is important to note that biodiversity does not merely serve a gauge on a dashboard for the sake of bureaucracy; rather, it serves the ecological health of the planet.
Local planning authorities (LPAs) ensure that biodiversity net gain (BNG) is achieved even when development sites are located amid a wide range of other habitats and in often heavily populated areas. LPAs assess plans during the planning process and outline how the developer will enhance the biodiversity of the site in question as well as how it will maintain that enhancement for at least 30 years.
If it proves impossible to add habitat and ecological value to the site itself, then your only recourse is a mitigation plan. This involves enhancing on-site biodiversity or making new habitats elsewhere.
The Statutory Biodiversity Metric should be used to complete a biodiversity impact assessment for every type of habitat
within a site. The metric accounts for several factors:
Distinctiveness:
includes assessments of species richness, diversity, and rarity, as well as the comparison of habitat-supporting species that are uncommon to other habitat types.
Condition:
quality of habitat
Connectivity :
how connected the habitat is to other habitats of similar type
Strategic Significance:
gauges whether the habitat occurs within an ecologically significant area identified by local planning strategy.
Biodiversity assessment is usually done at the same time as a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal. An ecologist surveys the site and identifies all the different habitats and their condition using a grading system (“good”, “moderate” or “poor”).
Applicable law includes the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. These regulations allow for the council issuing planning permission to know what species are living on and around the site they are considering. Developer appraisals also inform conservation authorities of any important biodiversity features that will be affected by the proposed works.
Ecologists via our organisation work in close conjunction with landowners and developers to establish Habitat Management and Monitoring Plans (HMMPs) that are fully compatible with site plans and achieve a Biodiversity Net Gain.
Existing habitats can often be enhanced, and new habitats can be created to favourable effect. One way to achieve this is to plant wildflower meadows, hedges, and trees. Another largely successful way to achieve this is through extensive planting (as at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London) and numerous other routes to habitat creation that favour the local condition.
When on-site measures can not yield Biodiversity Net Gain, off-site solutions can be employed (i.e. biodiversity credits). Contact us to learn more.
Property owners can sell Biodiversity Credits while engaging local authorities or brokerages in the process. These credits are accumulated when landowners improve biodiversity on their land.
To earn the credits, property owners must undergo an assessment process using the UK Government’s Biodiversity Metric. They first need to get in touch with local authorities or brokerages to schedule a property survey. The property is then assessed for biodiversity.
Local authorities and brokerages use the results from these assessments to determine “net gain”: a conservation term that describes whether property under development has improved, worsened, or stayed the same in terms of biodiversity.
Your consultant BNG surveyor can help you with the above (including guidance on landscaping to plant wildflower meadows, hedgerows, trees, etc.).
