Guidance on registered BNG sites
In a joint letter published on 21 July 2024, the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Steve Reed MP) and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Angela Rayner MP), expressed the importance of sustainability and environmental conservation alongside house building.
At present, biodiversity net gain (BNG) continues to be a key component of the planning and development process, although there have been questions as to whether it would be better replaced by some form of levy.
It is now over 7 months since the 10% BNG mandatory requirement for major development came into effect and the body of guidance around BNG is ever evolving. For example, on 21 August 2024, updates to the “Biodiversity net gain: exempt developments” guidance were published, clarifying the criteria a development must meet to qualify for exemption as a self-build or custom build.
More recently, on 5 September 2024, Natural England published guidance on making amends to and removals of registrations of biodiversity gain sites and amending allocation of off-site biodiversity gains to a development. The guidance confirms there are limited circumstances in which amends may be made to the BNG register. For instance, any change to the register may only be made by the freeholder or leaseholder (or any person who has obtained their written consent). In respect of amending entries on the BNG register the following reasons may permit an application:
- Changes to section 106 agreements or conservation covenants which secure the land for BNG purposes for a period of at least 30 years; or
- The site information on the BNG register is incomplete, or inaccurate, for any other reason.
Furthermore, there are limited circumstances where an application can be made to amend allocations of Offsite Gains i.e. where a developer cannot meet their full BNG requirement on site. The application to amend must be either seek to reduce the size, area or length of an allocated habitat or remove a recorded allocation entirely. Guidance confirms that an application cannot be made to amend an allocation that relates to an extant planning permission. Clear evidence must be provided that the planning permission conditions related to this allocation are no longer in place (e.g. where a permission has lapsed or been revoked) such as a letter from the LPA (although the guidance does not provide examples of what this would look like).
Natural England’s guidance also touches on applications to remove a site from the BNG register. Again, there are limited conditions where these may be made, firstly, the site must not have any partial or full allocations against it. The application must relate to only one gain site, and it must be for the removal of the gain site in its entirety - partial removal of a site is not permitted.
To conclude, BNG presents an opportunity for landowners and promoters to utilise their land for ecological enhancement as well as creating potential revenue streams. However, the recent government guidance demonstrates that there are limited circumstances where a registration or allocation on the biodiversity gain sites register can be amended.
