The British Property Federation (BPF) is calling on the government to set out a new long-term strategy for resourcing the planning system to ensure that local authorities have the capacity and capability to deliver biodiversity net gain (BNG) effectively, ahead of the new regulations coming into force in England.
The new mandatory BNG regulations require developers to demonstrate that they will deliver biodiversity net gains of at least 10% and maintain this for 30 years or more before planning approval can be granted.
Research published by the government suggests that only 5% of local planning authorities feel their current ecological resource is adequate to scrutinise all applications that might affect biodiversity and less than 10% feel that their expertise and resources will be adequate to deliver BNG.
Rob Wall, assistant director at the British Property Federation said: “The property sector has a huge role to play in protecting and restoring nature, and many developers are already delivering biodiversity net gain across their existing assets and new developments. The new mandatory BNG regulations will place an additional burden on already over-stretched local authority planning departments. This is why we are calling on government to set out a new long-term strategy for resourcing the planning system to ensure that planning departments have the capacity and capability to deliver on all fronts including on BNG.
“We will also be closely monitoring the implementation of BNG to understand the impact on development. This will include looking at local authorities’ approach to allowing BNG offsite and to going beyond the 10% BNG minimum and monitoring how the market in BNG units is developing.”
