Biodiversity Net Gain Calculations for Planning Applications

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Holly Greenman (Chippenham) 

Since 2nd April 2024 all new planning proposals in England must adhere to Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) conditions.  This means that you must demonstrate that your proposed development increases biodiversity by at least 10%.  This can be provided on site, or through alternative agreements (which gets a bit complicated and is really enough for a whole other newsletter article!).

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What is important for us as rural planning consultants and to our clients, is that we are now required to submit our Biodiversity Baseline calculation (i.e., what is the biodiversity value of the existing site) and a Net Gain delivery plan AT THE POINT OF submitting our planning applications.  There is no opportunity to have this conditioned and to be something that we tackle post-approval, it has to be presented along with the other plans, statements and surveys that would be submitted as part of any full application.  Permission cannot be granted without this.

I have tried several methods of Biodiversity Net Gain calculation using the Governments own Biodiversity Metric and specialist software developments.  Despite not being an ecologist, I am a “reasonably qualified” person and therefore, according to the government, capable of carrying out such an analysis.

Well, I may be technically qualified, but the Biodiversity Metric is extremely tricky to follow and requires some fairly major assumptions that realistically, only an ecologist with good local knowledge is going to be capable of making.  Specialist software and apps that have been developed for the task are simpler, but cost in the region of AT LEAST £600 per assessment.  What with the additional professional time required to complete these, clients should be aware that the BNG calculations are a significant cost of preparing a planning application now.

We also cannot complete all of them.  I recently logged on to complete a BNG calculation, credit card in hand, and found that as the site was within 500 metres of a protected habitat the use of an ecologist to complete the assessment was mandatory.  I’m sure I do not need to tell you that very much of the countryside (my main work-ground) is likely to lie within 500 metres of a protected site, SSSI, priority habitat area etc., and therefore an ecologist input is going to automatically required.

Not surprisingly, given the influx of work they must now be getting, ecologists are extremely busy and extremely expensive.  If you need their involvement in a BNG calculation, expect months not weeks of delay and a bill of at least four figures.

Careful consideration of site, mitigation hierarchy and the implementation of permitted development rights can save significantly not only in the cost of preparing the necessary calculations, but delivering a BNG scheme once your work is done.

Plan ahead and get as much of the information required, ready to save time and money.  Contact Holly at hollygreeman@fcgagric.com or your local FCG office for help in this area.

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