This announcement firms up DEFRA's intention to bring in a mandatory uplift of a minimum 10% biodiversity net gain by November this year.  This announcement was very useful in that they have detailed a number of exceptions from the BNG requirements and have provided some guidance as to the opportunity to combine BNG and nutrient neutrality mitigation," says Tracey Jackson Head of Environment & Forestry for H&H Land & Estates.

The exemptions in the week's announcement included:

• Householder applications
• Small scale self-build and custom housebuilding
• Development impacting habitats of an area below a threshold of 25m², or 5m for linear habitats such as hedgerows
• Biodiversity gain sites (where habitats are being enhanced for wildlife)

The announcement also delayed bringing in the BNG requirements for small sites (fewer than 10 houses, or less than 0.5 hectares) until April 2024. 

As part of a planning application applicants are required to submit a biodiversity gain plan, and it is anticipated that DEFRA will soon be providing further guidance and a template, along with further guidance on off-site offsetting. 

Tracey gives some further background and comments:

"There is some guidance on combining BNG and nutrient neutrality payments, and it may be possible to have both on the same offset land, with the potential to stack these alongside other environmental schemes. This is a complicated process however, and the guidance is still to be digested.  More information is still required from the Government on many areas of this scheme.

"What is clear is that a significant amount of land is going to be required in order to support large scale development, and farmers need to consider if they have any land which they could potentially put forward as biodiversity net gain mitigation.

"At H&H Land & Estates we are receiving more and more calls from developers seeking land to provide mitigation for their developments, and our in-house ecologist, David Morley, is already delivering Metric 3.1 calculations which are the baseline for anyone wanting to potentially put land forward for BNG.

"With reductions in BPS payments and shift in Government policy towards incentivising farmers to adapting to environmentally focussed farming, and the push to encourage private funding to finance nature recovery, there is much opportunity for collaboration with private developers, which offers a new dimension to potential income streams for farmers."

For further information and advice on understanding the opportunities available, you can contact Tracey on 01228 406260 or at Tracey.Jackson@hhlandestates.co.uk.