Natural England provided an update on the forthcoming mandatory approach to biodiversity net gain, encompassing the latest Government policy announcements and what these mean for ecologists, developers, planners and land owners. They also provided an update about the biodiversity metric that will be used for mandatory biodiversity net gain.
Dr Nicholas Ian White works across Government (national and local), and with developers, NGOs and academia to advance policy, practice and standards around net gain (biodiversity, natural capital and environmental). The current focus of his work is on biodiversity net gain legislation, the biodiversity metric and biodiversity net gain standards and guidance. He is also working on the evolving approach to marine net gain.
Q&A with Nick White
- Does onsite BNG also need to be delivered for 30 years?
That’s a good question. Onsite doesn’t need to be legally secured, it would be secured through planning conditions. It depends on whether it is classified as significant or not. Under the primary legislation, there is a reference to significance and we’re still waiting for Defra to clarify what is meant by significant. - Is there any update as to when we might see the drafts of the regulations that are going to be implemented?
Not at the moment. We also have a period of local elections coming up which will introduce a period of purdah and mean we can’t release any guidance during that period. When purdah comes to an end, there will be quite a lot of stuff coming out in May.
Presentation Slides
Further info and links
- Defra BNG consultation response: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-biodiversity-net-gain-regulations-and-implementation/outcome/government-response-and-summary-of-responses
- Defra stacking and bundling guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/combining-environmental-payments-biodiversity-net-gain-bng-and-nutrient-mitigation
- Defra ‘collections’ page – where they will be posting Govt BNG guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/biodiversity-net-gain
- Defra metric consultation response: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/defra-net-gain-consultation-team/technicalconsultation_biodiversitymetric/results/offsen_consultation_biodiversity_metric_gov_response_mar20231.pdf
- Biodiversity Metric 4.0 – NE site: http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/6049804846366720#:~:text=The%20Biodiversity%20Metric%204.0%20-%20JP039%20Biodiversity%20Metric,the%20previously%20published%20biodiversity%20metric%203.1%20%28April%202022%29.
- Small Sites Metric – NE site: http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/6047259574927360
- NE blog post about the development of metric 4.0 and the future: https://naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2023/03/28/measuring-biodiversity-net-gain-publication-of-biodiversity-metric-4-0/
- BNG Brochure published by NE: https://naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/183/2022/04/BNG-Brochure_Final_Compressed-002.pdf
- CIRIA/CIEEM/IEMA – Biodiversity Net Gain: Good Practice Principle for Development, A Practical Guide: https://cieem.net/resource/biodiversity-net-gain-good-practice-principles-for-development-a-practical-guide/
- Process for Designing and Implementing Biodiversity Net Gain BS8683:2021 British standard: https://knowledge.bsigroup.com/products/process-for-designing-and-implementing-biodiversity-net-gain-specification/standard
- Upcoming free entoLIVE webinars: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/entolive-webinars-74679
- Full list of courses and events from the Biological Recording Company: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-biological-recording-company-35982868173
- Proposed Condition Assessment Method for BNG by Digital Ecology: https://digital-ecology.co.uk/condition-assessment-method.html
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