Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Assessments
Biodiversity refers to the variety of ecosystems, communities of living things, and their environments. The UK Government is taking a proactive approach to development by ensuring that developers can improve and create natural habitats to help combat climate change and consider ways that developments can be built in a sustainable manner, ensuring that wildlife and habitats can thrive post-development.
Biodiversity Net Gain in relation to planning applications has been mandatory from 12th of February 2024 under Schedule 7A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, but it has been implemented on larger sites prior to this date.
Whether you are a developer, a land manager, or part of the Local Planning Authority, Biodiversity Net Gain will have an impact on most larger scale projects.
When an application meets the criteria of requiring a BNG Assessment, the developer must ensure that they are delivering a minimum score of 10% BNG using either the Small Sites Metric (if applicable) or the Statutory Biodiversity Metric. The reason for this is to ensure that habitats and wildlife already existing on a proposed development site are left in a measurably better state than they were pre-development.
BNG Assessments offer developers and home-owners different ways on how to enhance the 'green spaces' within the site to encourage wildlife and vegetation to thrive. We have seen the suggestion of Rain Gardens and hedgerows within some of our latest projects which are fantastic ways of encouraging wildlife species to the newly created habitats and also as a way of boosting a Biodiversity Net Gain score to ensure that this Planning legislation is met.
You can read more about Biodiversity Net Gain on the gov.uk website.
Councils in our surrounding area have requested that a Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment accompanies all Full or Outline Planning Applications.
There are exemptions, for example if the site in question meets the self/custom build criteria, if the proposed development site impacts less that 25m2 of habitat and is therefore below the threshold, the site is a Biodiversity gain site and finally, Biodiversity Net Gain does not apply to standard householder applications at the moment.
This means that most extensions and certain outbuildings that fall under a householder planning application do not require a Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment (it is always good however, to try and enhance any onsite habitats you might have regardless of the project!).
Larger home extensions, replacement dwellings, proposed annexe’s, change of use applications and other works will be subject to a BNG Assessment which must be undertaken by an ecologist or other suitably qualified person(s).
If you are submitting an Outline Planning Application with all matters reserved, then there is a small possibility that if the size, design and general scale of the site has not yet been determined, that the Biodiversity Net Gain assessment can be conditioned until a later date, but it will still need to be completed before any work can commence.
If you feel as though your project might be subject to a Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment, get in touch today.
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