Biodiversity Net Gain

BNG is one of the most significant changes in wildlife law in the last 30 years and will create a new market in providing and creating ‘biodiversity units’. There are three ways in which a developer can achieve BNG from their development:

Option 1: Retain and create sufficient biodiverse habitats within their application boundary

Option 2: Deliver the necessary number of biodiversity units through a combination of on-site and off-site habitat creation.

The off-site units can be delivered on their own land outside the development site, or by buying biodiversity units through a commercial offsetting provider.

Or, as a last resort…

Option 3: They can purchase statutory biodiversity credits from the government – which is a pricey option that can at least double the cost of securing enough units, compared to Option 2.

It’s important to note that measuring and securing the necessary BNG requires expert ecological knowledge, as simple mistakes at the baseline assessment stage can result in costly outcomes – potentially £100,000’s more.  A suitably qualified ecologist first needs to measure the value of the biodiversity units on-site, and then work with the client’s developer to work-out the most practical and appropriate way to achieve at least a 10% Net Gain.

It is also critically important that BNG is built into the early-stages of development planning. The BNG mitigation hierarchy is specifically designed to promote the retention of existing habitats first, and there are multipliers built into the Statutory Metric which heavily penalise developments and cause extensive loss of high-value habitats. Furthermore, any schemes that end-up having to rely on offsetting solutions being created a long distance from the site itself, may find that they have to provide double the number of offset units compared to retaining them on site. This could result in six or seven figure BNG costs, which could affect the viability of a scheme if it is not accounted for fully and early-on in the provisional costings for the scheme. The potential for BNG to provide beneficial outcomes for the UK’s biodiversity is significant, however, these new development costs need to be born in mind when striking land-deals and option agreements for all new schemes in the future.

With the introduction of BNG, one of the most significant changes is to the process of data analysis and agreeing the mitigation/compensation that is required. A lot of the habitat value assessments that were previously undertaken by an ecologist and subsequently negotiated between ecologists, land managers, developers and the Local Planning Authority (LPA) is now handled within calculations that are embedded into the Statutory Metric. The metric has a strong evidence-base and will be updated every c.5year, as the lessons are learnt and monitoring data becomes available. The Statutory Metric is therefore a significant step forward for streamlining and standardising the approach to valuing habitats, determining impacts, and calculating the type and amount of appropriate compensation/mitigation that is required.

BNG has also significantly increased the expected level of mitigation / compensation each scheme will have to provide. The main reason for the increase in ecology mitigation costs for developers is the need to fully fund the creation, management and monitoring of all the strategically important habitats upfront.

For the first time outside of European Protected Species licencing system, on-site mitigation and off-site compensation habitats have to be supported by full funding for a mandatory 30-year period. This means that any habitats that have been created or enhanced must be maintained for a minimum of thirty years. A legally-binding commitment will need to be made through a Section 106 Agreement or Conservation Covenant, which sets-out the terms for funding, creating, enhancing, monitoring, and reporting on each BNG scheme. This would be supported by an agreed Biodiversity Gain Plan and a Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan (HMMP).