BIODIVERSITY NET GAIN

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is a national framework which ensures development retains, creates, and enhances meaningful habitats for wildlife in a measurably better state than they were before the development.

In addition, the BNG framework can be used to evidence an uplift in biodiversity for the sale/trading of Biodiversity Credits, which may provide access to new sources of revenue for poor quality agricultural land or other land out of management.

BNG became mandatory for all major development projects from 12^th February 2024 and development of small sites (1 and 9 dwellings, 1 hectare or less) from 2^nd April 2024.

The DEFRA Statutory Metric is a tool used to assess the change in biodiversity (habitats, hedgerows (linear features), and watercourses) between what was there before development (baseline) and what is proposed to be there after development (post-intervention). All land must be secured through legal agreement for a period of 30 years.

Our team of BNG specialists and ecologists lead the industry in undertaking BNG assessment using the DEFRA Statutory Metric. As industry leaders in BNG, we are best placed to support you in understanding the full implications for your proposals at an early stage and work closely with your or our own in-house project teams during the design phases to maximise the biodiversity value of your proposals. We can also consider the collection of BNG survey data during any of our other habitat assessments (e.g., Preliminary Ecological Appraisal). Should it not be possible to achieve the required net gain targets under the proposals, we can then advise and support our clients towards an appropriate solution.

We are increasingly working with landowners keen to understand the biodiversity opportunities of their landholdings in line with the new legislation, which may present a lucrative source of revenue. We work closely with our clients to assess the biodiversity baseline of larger land parcels (e.g., farmland, estates) at both high level and detailed scale using the DEFRA Statutory Metric and consult on the strategic planning of their landholdings (in regard to BNG and other available environmental schemes). We aim to identify areas where greatest biodiversity uplift can be achieved, thereby providing the maximum number of biodiversity credits which can be traded or sold to offset developments (“Habitat Banking”). Through our wider land management and contracting experience, we can robustly model, budget, and deliver long-term habitat management requirements in-house.

Clients can particularly benefit from the collaboration between Nicholsons’ Ecology and Landscape Architecture departments to seamlessly deliver both your planning and BNG requirements.