Biodiversity Net Gain - The new legislation & what it means for your development?
To make the new legislation from DEFRA much easier to understand, we’ve created this short summary for Developers and Ecologists to use to help inform their decision making on Biodiversity Net Gain.
• From February 2024 BNG will be a material consideration for the majority of planning applications in England.
• BNG is calculated from the biodiversity value of the site before development has commenced.
• Meeting BNG requirements can be onsite, offsite or via the purchase of BNG units or government credits as a last resort.
• The majority of planning decisions will be conditioned stating that a Biodiversity Gain Plan (BGP) will need to be submitted and approved by the LPA. Failure to comply will be a breach of planning control.
• All planning application forms should have a new BNG section.
• Development cannot commence until the BGP is approved.
• BNG must be secured for 30 years after the completion of development.
• You cannot vary the wording of a BNG condition.
• Unless another timeframe is agreed with the LPA a BGP must be determined within eight weeks. If after unapproved after twelve weeks the administration fee of £145 would be refunded to the developer.
• An approved BGP cannot be amended.
We’ve created the above summary based on various material announced, but if you’re looking to delve a bit deeper this summary from Nexus Planning is also very good: https://www.nexusplanning.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/BNG.pdf