Holly Hawker (Chippenham)

As set out in the Environment Act 2021, which will come into force in 2023, new developments that impact upon biodiversity must ensure that a 10% Biodiversity Net Gain is delivered as part of a planning condition.

The aim of the new legislation is to ensure that all developments are ‘Nature positive’ and to ensure that the natural environment is left in a measurably better state than it was previously.

The biodiversity of a site is determined by the Biodiversity Metric (Version 3.0 launched in July 2021) which assesses baseline habitat features, hedgerow features and river features. The habitats then receive a score, and this ultimately determines the quality and quantity of habitat that needs to be reinstated (and enhanced by 10%). This can be on the development sites themselves, or away from the development, so long as they are still within the boundary of the LPA.

All of this means that there is potential for a new market for farmers and landowners to provide long term (minimal 30 year terms) biodiversity off-set sites.

Being in it’s embryonic stages of implementation across many County Councils, there are still lots of uncertainties about this exciting new land use however, such as tax implications, change of ownership, carbon accounting, the actual value of biodiversity units and how best to market your land with the LPA for consideration as an off-set site. In usual fashion, councils seem to be slow and uncertain in their adoption strategies, and certainly across Wiltshire there seems to be little consistency at the moment with the scale of development and the subsequent requirement to adhere to biodiversity net gain (remember- it is currently not legally enforceable but soon will be!)

What is important, and where farmers will set themselves apart from development landowners, is the on-going management of these sites and this is something that needs to be pressed upon local planning authorities. A recent case in Wiltshire, where the developer of a 50 house site chose to establish the biodiversity plots as corridors and pasture areas within the development site itself, ended in disaster when the newly moved in residents actually all ended up absorbing the corridors into their own gardens. This went un-noticed by the developers as proper management schemes had not been established. Without proper attention many sites that could be designated for habitat creation, could easily just become weeds and thistles with very little to offer in the form of biodiversity.

Contact Holly at hollyhawker@fcgagric.com for more information on this emerging opportunity for some landowners.