Off-site Biodiversity Net Gain Units Now Available Through Stride & Son
Offering a complete service for Developers, Landowners and Local Planning Authorities, our specialist team work hard to get developments approved and BNG commitments met with a fully managed, bespoke and end-to-end service.
How does the process work?
Once you’ve instructed us, we will do the rest! We will provide the BNG assessment for your site if not already completed, provide the offset units, the report to satisfy planning, and will arrange all legal aspects. We will submit a report as part of your planning application for approval by the local authority. After this you will simply have to sign the legal documents confirming intention to purchase the BNG credits at the point of planning approval. We will work with a local ‘Responsible Body’ who will undertake the monitoring and compliance aspects during the lifetime of the agreement.
If you are the purchaser of units for a development, you will have no ongoing legal responsibility to ensure the habitats are created, this will be the responsibility of the landowner.
If you are the landowner selling units, you will be responsible for ongoing management of the habitat and we will continue to monitor and work with you over the 30 year timeframe to ensure delivery of the habitats.
How is BNG measured?
A qualified and accredited professional Ecologist will provide a baseline assessment of the biodiversity value of the habitat areas, linear and watercourse habitats on your site. This is input into a calculator provided by DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). They will then calculate the losses that may result from the development, and any gains from new habitats or from enhancing existing habitats. This will give a final numerical score and percentage gain or loss. Developments must achieve 10% numerical gain in the score in habitat areas, and a 10% gain in linear and watercourse habitats when present.
Some habitats such as woodlands, scrub and good grasslands must be compensated for with the same habitat types – woodland cannot be compensated for through grassland creation for example. As such on some sites, achieving BNG can be difficult.
What if I cannot achieve 10% on my site?
BNG can work with both on-site and off-site enhancement and habitat creation. The guidelines promote on-site gains most strongly, but if 10% is not possible on-site there are other options. The first is to find off-site land, survey this and secure enhancement to the level needed.
The other is to purchase ready-made habitat units, provided by private landowners who have already proven the gains.
With the aim of providing gains as close to the development as possible, the calculation penalises purchase of credits outside your local area by up to 50%. This means it is most cost effective to purchase credits locally in most cases.
How is Biodiversity Net Gain secured?
BNG will be secured for a standard 30 years, through a mixture of standard Section 106 legal agreements, and in some cases by new legal agreements called ‘Conservation Covenants’.
BNG can either be delivered in a ‘bespoke’ manner, through a developer’s planning application for a single site, or an ‘overarching’ legal agreement on a piece of land, approved by the LPA in advance, allowing the landowner to sell habitat units more rapidly.
Contact us to arrange a meeting to discuss your development project and how we can support you through the process.
