Biodiversity Net Gains - new mandatory requirements for developers

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is a strategy to develop land and contribute to the recovery of nature. It is a way of making sure the habitat for wildlife is in a better state than it was before development.

New mandatory requirements (introduced by the Environment Act 2021) will drive the delivery and protection of biodiversity by imposing obligations on new development to provide a quantifiable improvement (of at least 10%) in biodiversity levels by reference to a pre-development baseline. These requirements will come into effect from January 2024 in relation to most “major” developments.

This requirement will be imposed through the planning process by way of the automatic imposition of a planning condition requiring the Local Authority’s approval to a biodiversity gain plan (to secure such uplift in biodiversity) prior to the commencement of development.

As the increase in biodiversity can be achieved on-site, off-site or through a combination of the two, BNG will have significant impacts for land managers / owners, developers and local planning authorities.