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Source:Environment BankEnvironment Banks off-site habitat bank in North YorkshireIt all sounds so simple, so commendable. When you build something new, you must make sure there is more natural habitat on the site measurably better, as the legislation puts it than before the contractors shovels went into the ground.But the seeds of good ideas take time to blossom, and the first year of the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) regime has not been without its hiccups. One report in The Telegraph even claimed the new biodiversity drive was killing developments and destroying affordable housing schemes. Introduced for major developments on 12 February 2024 and for smaller developments two months later, BNG mandates that all new developments, except a narrow exemption list, deliver at least 110 per cent of a sites pre-existing biodiversity.AdvertisementDubbed the biggest change to planning regulations in decades by the Conservative government at the time, the law, embedded in the Environment Act, promised to help reverse a devastating decline in UK species, which have plummeted 19 per cent in their abundance since the 1970s. It recognised, for the first time, the value of all English wildlife habitats within the planning system.In practice, a sites biodiversity value, both before and after development, is measured in biodiversity units by an ecologist using a standardised metric. Developers must then guarantee a 10 per cent increase on this value, via a mitigation hierarchy of biodiversity delivery options.Clients will often ask for the cheapest option without accounting for the full-on, ongoing maintenance regimeThe most preferred is an on-site uplift for example by incorporating wildflower meadows, hedgerows, bat boxes,or ponds and wetlands into a schemes landscaping followed by off-site gain, which secures like-for-like biodiversity units from a landowner. As a last resort, developers can buy biodiversity statutory credits from Natural England. Crucially, developers must maintain the uplift for 30 years.The nations BNG drive has been hailed by Oxford University biologist Natalie Duffus as one of the most ambitious schemes the world has seen, with other nations watching keenly to see how it unfolds.The legislation is complex and still evolving but the industry is rapidly wising up to both the benefits and snags of BNG. So how is the law faring?AdvertisementLike any new legislation, BNG has suffered teething problems in its first 12 months.As the industry scrambled to respond to the new law, environmental consultants were inundated. Nora von Xylander, biodiversity and sustainability specialist at Tunley Environmental consultancy, says the stressful first year has been mired in delays and frustrations as clients raced to adapt or re-submit plans to meet BNG requirements. She says the message from development teams has been: We needed this yesterday. Source:ArcadisBiodiverse courtyard in Arcadiss mixed-use Corkfield development, BirminghamBut von Xylander says architects are now looking at BNG from the start, rather than tracing it backwards and clients are becoming more and more receptive by the month.Architects might be ahead of the game, but the BNG planning panic has had an industry-wide ripple effect and not all for the good.An AJ expert source, who wishes to remain anonymous, says BNG has led to a cowboy market as developers flounder for information and opportunists jump into the skills vacuum.The source cites developers literally bending rules to get through, local planning authorities taking payments for BNG when [the authority] hasnt got a way of delivering it, ecologists writing blatantly false biodiversity plans and habitat bank operators offering ridiculous off-site solutions purely for commercial gain.Amid the ruckus, those organisations with genuine expertise in BNG are highly sought-after.Matthew Morrison-Clarke, business development manager at Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trusts, a longstanding provider of both off-site habitats and BNG consultancy services, says demand has totally escalated over the last year.He agrees that, across the new nature market, the actual consistency and quality of advice is really, really poor, leaving frustrated architects and disenchanted developers wasting time and money on bad advice.Morrison-Clarke notes schemes where developers have, for example, sold 19 out of 20 properties on a site, but cant complete the sale or occupation of the 20th until they have met their BNG conditions. Meanwhile, a major multinational company, which the AJ cannot name, has engaged a number of external consultants, all of whom are giving them different advice, and is desperately asking: how do we find out what to do?The skills gap is equally stark on the other side of the fence within councils.Morrison-Clarke has advised developers with construction teams literally on site but unable to start as they await BNG approvals from under-resourced local authorities.A 2023 survey into skills and capacity in planning departments by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) warned that only a third of local authorities had access to their own in-house ecologist a figure at odds with the national focus on tackling biodiversity loss. Morrison-Clarke predicts the rough ride will continue for another 12 months. But he is optimistic that the BNG markets professionalism and local planning authorities resourcing and standards will settle. Its at a very early stage, so we shouldnt be too critical, he says. Give it time.Emma Toovey is an ecologist and project manager at Environment Bank, an off the shelf biodiversity unit provider with 30 live sites across the country, offering developers like-for-like off-site credits since 2021. Toovey, similarly, noticed a rise in opportunists and jostling to meet strong demand in the nascent market. But she is now seeing some really strong emerging operators, as well as significant upskilling from both advisors and planning authorities. Importantly, says Toovey, BNG has established a transformational framework to ensure that ecological outcomes are delivered, along with robust governance for the long-term.Observations and challengesBut has the legislation had a measurable impact on wildlife? Figures released in February by Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of 86 environmental organisations, found that BNG had delivered less than 13 per cent of the 5,428ha of post-development habitat which Defra estimated would be generated annually.Nick Hawkes, media and campaigns manager at the organisation, told the AJ that the research suggests BNG is not quite as up-and-running as wed like to see it.But Andy Howard, chief executive of biodiversity management consultancy CSX Carbon, says it is likely to take a few years on most sites before substantial gains begin to become obvious.He adds: It takes a little while for mother nature to wake up and respond, given the pressure she has been put under.Howard says BNG has certainly been effective in getting stakeholders to think about nature recovery. And, across the board, experts enthusiastically cite a general shift in mindset towards nature-based solutions in development.BNGs shorter-term impacts are already becoming clear to architects, landscape architects, consultants and policy advisers.The battle to meet BNG targets has revealed one particularly tough sticking point for SME developers.Small sites are really struggling, says consultant landscape architect Lindsey Wilkinson, who explains that a 10 per cent biodiversity uplift can quickly become overly burdensome on a small site with not a lot of give.Morrison-Clarke agrees: You cannot [create] species-rich grassland habitat and secure it for 30 years in a pocket of land the size of a front garden, because [people] will just mow it. Often, for these small sites, off-site provision appears to be the only option.And BNG is also proving challenging for specific larger projects. Jan-Maurits Loecke, architect and associate director at Arcadis, works on large-scale healthcare projects with aggressive programmes, including high technical specifications and acute pressure on space.BNG is challenging when every single square centimetre, particularly in hospital buildings, needs to be developed, says Loecke.He is personally very critical of using off-site provision as the alternative. That, insists Loecke defies the purpose of BNG, which is to bring more nature on-site, as well as ignoring its benefits to humans living in overpopulated areas including air quality and cooling.Alethea Ottewell, head of landscape architecture at HLM Architects, says BNG is already helping to retain many of the benefits which often get value-engineered out of projects, which, she adds, makes schemes a lot more interesting.Reworking a later living scheme in Sheffield to hit BNG targets, she says, has allowed her to push the scheme even more to get a better [outcome] for the landscape.Even so, Ottewells team is still struggling to meet the schemes targets, partly because it was deemed unsuitable for a green roof due to cost and maintenance requirements. Source:HLM ArchitectsLandscaping for Biodiversity Net Gain in HLMs later living scheme, South YorkshireSelling a 30-year ongoing maintenance culture to clients is an additional challenge for design teams. Fellow HLM landscape architect Noor Itrakjy says clients will often ask for the cheapest option without accounting for the full-on, ongoing maintenance regime and inspections that go with it.Moreover, some particularly high-quality and unique environments such as so-called mosaic habitats, where different habitats are found close together simply cannot be recreated on-site. Itrakjy says these hurdles arent helped by reluctant developers still asking: Whats the absolute minimum we can do for BNG?PolicyWhile BNG was a Tory brainchild, last summer the legislation became Labours torch to bear. Recently, the new governments build, build, build rhetoric has raised questions about the partys commitment to its nature-recovery regulations.Becky Pullinger, head of land use planning at the Wildlife Trust, told the AJ the language that weve heard from Rachel Reeves and Number 10 has not been very helpful in acknowledging the positive role nature can play as part of a growth agenda.Labours proposal in January to introduce a Nature Restoration Fund, which developers would pay into to waive some of their on-site environmental obligations, caused further suspicion and confusion around how it relates to BNG.But CSX Carbons Howard insists much was made of the headlines around the announcement, with little attention paid to the detail. Indeed, the accompanying working paper, published on 13 February this year, specifies that the Nature Restoration Fund proposals are intended to address a specific environmental impact funding large-scale, strategic nature recovery projects such as water pollution mitigation and creation of nesting habitats and are not expected to have any substantive impact on the implementation of mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain.But many are sceptical about how the complex and high-level nature policies can successfully interact with each other.Alexa Culver, an in-house lawyer at nature restoration consultancy RSK Wilding, is concerned that even a Nature Restoration Fund with a clearly defined scope could accidentally undermine BNG, by dampening confidence in private nature markets, as off-site providers fear they will eventually be gobbled up by the Nature Restoration Fund.Whats putting England on the world stage in terms of nature-positive legislation is the idea of encouraging private investment into nature, says Culver.Rather than adding yet more cost and complexity to planning laws with developers forced to tackle BNG, the Nature Restoration Fund and other species mitigations separately she says the government should stick with what weve got and enforce it properly.Culver says streamlining the BNG legislation should involve: tightening exemption loopholes; introducing more nuance to the biodiversity metric for pressures such as pets and recreational activities; and expanding Natural Englands site register to include on-site, as well as off-site, biodiversity monitoring an idea supported by Wildlife and Countryside Link.Architects and developers will have to roll with the punches a while longer yet as BNGs early problems are ironed out. But, as Loecke points out: Ultimately, BNG is not just about box-ticking. Its about us, the people, living longer, happier lives.Biodiversity biodiversity net gain 2025-03-20Anna Highfieldcomment and share
