A government consultation has opened to explore the potential for easing Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements for the developers of ‘small sites’. These currently account for around three-quarters of residential planning applications, with the government aiming to deliver 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Development is seeking views on whether to reduce the BNG mandate requirements for property developers delivering sites of up to nine homes, which account for around 70% of the residential planning applications in the UK each year.
In addition to this, the government is exploring whether to introduce a new ‘medium-sized site’ category for developments of between 10 to 49 homes, with more stringent BNG requirements than for small sites, but less burden than those applicable for larger sites.
A consultation on these proposed changes will be open for eight weeks.
Commenting on the announcement, Tom Vacher on behalf of Natural Capital Advisory says: “The consultation comes as no surprise in light of the government’s agenda to streamline the planning process. It is disappointing that the government is outlining a proposal that may reduce BNG regulations rather than making the process easier for house builders to engage with.
The roadblocks we have experienced with delivering BNG projects off-site are not the regulations themselves but the lack of understanding by some Local Planning Authorities. We have a functioning private market delivering off-site Biodiversity Units to enable development and this is funding environmental improvement at scale. The government’s proposal risks undermining this market and its ability to meet the government’s own goals set out in the Environment Improvement Plan.
In the meantime, we will continue to work alongside house builders of all sizes, utility companies and local government across England to deliver their mitigation requirements for BNG and Nutrient Neutrality.”
The Environmental Farmer’s Group provides BNG projects for all development sizes. Currently, around 22% of the total value of EFG’s trading pipeline (BNG and Nutrient Neutrality) originates from sites between 1 and 49 homes. It remains to be seen how any new changes might affect demand for BNG units or phosphate and nitrate credits going forward.