BNG units
Biodiversity Net Gain
The BNG market works whereby housing developers are required to offset the biodiversity impact that their development has by 110% or more. In February 2024, BNG became compulsory across England under the Environment Act 2021.
Housing developers can fulfil this obligation in three ways:
- Creating onsite biodiversity features – By creating biodiversity features on the proposed development site.
- Purchasing from an ‘offsite’ solution – Purchasing from registered BNG projects created by farmers & landowners.
- Purchasing Statutory Biodiversity Credits – Purchase Statutory Credits from Natural England. These are priced uncompetitively with income used to invest into strategic BNG projects.
BNG Units in more detail
Off-site Biodiversity Units
With our national scale we can provide developers with Biodiversity Units within the same catchment as their projects to deliver cost-effective off-site solutions.
We have a dedicated team that work with our members to create fully assured Habitat Banks, backed up by over 33 years of ecological research and expert management support to deliver a variety of habits including: grassland, woodland, hedgerows, and watercourses.
BNG Solutions
We have aggregated the supply of Biodiversity Units across England for developers to purchase and meet their BNG planning conditions.
We can provide allocations large and small, whether a portion or national supply of Biodiversity Units through our network of Habitat Banks across England.
‘Peace of mind’ – the funding from the sale of Biodiversity Units will be used to deliver EFG’s pioneering Catchment Conservations Plans. These will deliver landscape scale environmental improvement at a local level.
Buy Biodiversity Units
- Step 1: Headline Terms – we will provide you with headline terms for the sale of Biodiversity Units;
- Step 2: Tailored Solutions to meet your development projects timeframes and cashflow management;
- Step 3: Reserve an allocation using an allocation agreement or conditional contract with a deposit payment;
- Step 4: Biodiversity Units transferred on completion of the agreement.