With mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) on the horizon, we caught up with Senior Associate, Alex Watts, to discuss what the implications were for landowners and developers going forward.
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is a basic concept whereby development and or land management aims to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was beforehand. As imposed by the 2021 Environment Act, all developments in England from Autumn 2023, will be required to deliver a mandatory 10% BNG which will have to be maintained for at least 30 years.
From November 2023, there will be a mandatory requirement for all developments receiving planning permission under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to deliver at least 10% BNG. Developers can deliver BNG within the redline boundary of their development or outside of development sites, through biodiversity offsetting. These areas will need to be secured and registered on the biodiversity gain sites. Units within these sites can be created and then allocated or sold to developers. Developers can also purchase statutory credits from the government, as a last resort, to meet their biodiversity objective of 10% BNG.
The number of biodiversity units required will be calculated by developers using a statutory metric, Biodiversity Metric 3.1. This will initially consider the site and the loss of habitat to establish the pre-development baseline value. The metric will then calculate how many units need to be provided onsite or offsite, to satisfy the 10% biodiversity gain. This means that before the start of any development, planning applicants will need to quantify the existing and proposed biodiversity values of their site and then demonstrate that the intended gain exceeds the loss of the development project by at least 10%.
Whilst the requirement to deliver BNG is not yet mandatory within all local planning authorities, many councils have started to embrace the policy and are therefore requiring developments to deliver a 10% gain. Weare therefore already considering several opportunities on behalf of landowners to review the income potential from BNG, These deals however require extremely careful consideration including but not limited to the impact on tax, capital values, future land use and the wider estate strategy. BNG obligations will be enforced by either local planning authorities where planning obligations or planning conditions have been used to secure the BNG habitat enhancement or responsible bodies where conservation covenants have been used.
BNG opportunities should be considered before any land sale to ensure landowners are given the opportunity for the land to be used to deliver BNG in the future or to sell the units on land to developers.
Our Green Offset brokerage platform which has been developed by our natural capital team seeks to connect parties who are looking for an area to site a natural capital asset with landowners. This is a free-to-access database of landowners who are willing to explore the provision of biodiversity, nutrient or carbon offsetting. For developers with specific requirements in a specific geographical location, we can undertake a land search to identify suitable sites to meet offsetting needs via the platform and through more extensive land searches.
We can provide advice on natural capital policy based on our extensive experience to assist developers in understanding the impact of the Environmental Policy, the options available to achieve environmental outcomes, and developing a strategy to achieve natural capital requirements.
We are urging landowners, developers, and housebuilders to get in touch.
