DEFRA are currently consulting on the practical and legal implementation details of the new biodiversity net gain [BNG] requirement for development. The consultation opened on the 11th January 2022 and closes on the 5th April 2022.
Phillippa Gatehouse, Graduate Planner at Chapman Lily Planning states, ‘This is an important consultation, with responses helping to shape secondary legislation, policy and delivery plans. The impact of BNG for development can already be seen, with many councils who, despite the Environment Act’s mandatory requirement for BNG not being fully brought into effect due to a two year transition period, have already adopted the 10% net gain into policy. There is an existing lack of clarity surrounding BNG which this DEFRA consultation seeks to clarify while inviting views on their proposals’.
This consultation provides additional clarity on what is meant by BNG, described by DEFRA as ‘an approach to development which means that habitats for wildlife must be left in a measurably better state than they were before development’. It outlines the proposed approach to how BNG might be applied to different types of development and how the mandatory BNG requirement will work for Town and Country Planning Act 1990 development.
Of particular interest to many land owners is the prospect of additionality, a principle defined by DEFRA as ‘a real increase in social value that would not have occurred in the absence of the intervention being appraised’. With regards to stacking of payments for environmental services, the consultation document outlines that there is recognition that the market for biodiversity units will need to work alongside other environmental markets, for example UK Government funded programmes such as the new schemes to reward environmental land management, nature-based carbon and nutrient trading and established markets for provisioning services, such as agricultural and forestry products. It is recognised that one of the key uncertainties for land owners and managers currently is whether it will be possible to combine payments for different services or products from the same parcel of land. At present, the consultation paper is minded to allow the combination of payments for environmental services and biodiversity units from the same parcel of land provided that they are paying for distinct, additional outcomes. This will arguably support high quality projects, incentivising land managers to deliver a range of environmental benefits from a given parcel of land rather than only one key outcome.
Responses to the consultation can be carried out through the online survey (Consultation on Biodiversity Net Gain Regulations and Implementation – Defra – Citizen Space) or can be sent by email to netgainconsultation@defra.gov.uk.
For more information on the DEFRA consultation on biodiversity net gain regulations and implementation, or on how biodiversity net gain may impact you, please do not hesitate to contact the Chapman Lily Planning team.
Phillippa Gatehouse, Planning Graduate