Property Possibilities are Running Wild

ESG Investor

Farrer & Co Senior Associate Rebecca Standing considers the options for investors and developers facing the UK’s biodiversity net gain rules.

The requirement to provide 10% biodiversity net gain (BNG) became mandatory in England when Part 6 of the Environment Act 2021 (2021 Act) came into force on 12 February 2024, or 2 April 2024 for small sites – developments with nine houses or fewer on a site of less than one hectare. From this date, all planning permissions issued in England are subject to a deemed condition that the development for which permission is sought must meet the BNG objective.

The UK government guidance describes the aim of the BNG objective as “habitats for wildlife are left in a measurably better state than they were before the development” – which translates into a requirement that the post-development site achieves a net increase in biodiversity of at least 10%, compared to the biodiversity value of the site pre-development. The associated habitat creation or enhancements must then be maintained for 30 years.

BNG metrics and methods

In order to ensure that the biodiversity value of a site is calculated in a standardised way, Natural England has published the statutory biodiversity metric. This is a calculation tool which, with the help of an ecologist, enables developers to calculate the present and projected future biodiversity value of a site, before and after development. It can also predict how much biodiversity value certain habitat creation or enhancement works will create and, as such, is a helpful planning tool.

Examples of BNG delivery are diverse and can include both larger-scale elements – including the creation of dedicated habitat areas, such as wildflower meadows, wetlands, and orchards – and smaller scale elements, such as bird boxes, bee bricks and hedgehog highways. BNG delivery can also be achieved in the construction of the built environment itself, through the inclusion of infrastructure like solar slate, green walls, ground source heat pumps, and rainwater collection.

The required 10% gain can be achieved in one of three ways, or a combination of them, by:

carrying out habitat creation or enhancement works on the development site itself – i.e. onsite creating or enhancing habitats in offsite locations buying statutory credits Offsite or onsite?

When considering which of the three methods to use, it should be noted that the government has made it clear that statutory credits are to be

The full article is available here. This article was published at ESG Investor.