Planning Decisions & The Biodiversity net gain (BNG) scheme

Perhaps it was a slow news day but watching the news over breakfast this morning I was interested in an article concerning local residents who turned out in their hundreds to help thousands of frogs and toads cross a busy road!  So what does this have to do with planning decisions for commercial properties? From 12th February 2024, the Government has introduced the BNG scheme as a new compulsory condition on planning permission decisions which is likely to impact tens of thousands of planning decisions each year. 

The legislation sets out to provide sites scored on a biodiversity metric and gains can be established both onsite or offsite, and on land also owned or controlled by that developer or through the acquisition of biodiversity credits (units) through the purchase of statutory credits. 

It seeks to ensure development (usually small or large housing developments) has a positive impact on the biodiversity of the site delivering a net gain when compared with the pre-development position.  As always, the devil will be in the detail, and this will become clearer over the weeks and months ahead as developers and their professional advisers get a feel for how they establish a 10% net gain. 

Property Developers will also want to be aware of this and surveyors will be gearing up to offer Property Developers expert advice on biodiversity gain in their planning applications.

Developers will of course be very familiar with Section 106 Agreements and Community Infrastructure Levies (CILs), but the new BNG regime takes this to a whole new level.

No doubt a marketplace will quickly evolve for the acquisition of biodiversity credits and a register is being established.  Greater credit will be available for biodiversity gains on the site itself with a reduced level of credit available for offsite gains.  DEFRA (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has published indicative prices from around £42,000 up to £650,000 which is understood to be in respect of a site rather than development units or acreage.