Biodiversity Net Gain, guidance for developers and ecological consultants

The following national validation requirements have been imposed:

• a statement as to whether the applicant believes the development is subject to the biodiversity gain condition (on application form)
• where the applicant believes that planning permission, if granted, would not be subject to the biodiversity gain condition, the reasons for that belief (within the statement on the application form)
• where planning permission would be subject to the biodiversity gain condition:
                 

The completed biodiversity metric showing the calculation of the biodiversity value of the onsite habitat, on

• the date of the application; or
• an earlier date proposed by the applicant

With the date being immediately before any activities of the type mentioned in paragraph 6 or 6A of Schedule 7A to the 1990 Act having been carried out on the land.

• Where any of the above activities to degrade the land have been undertaken, submit:
  • a statement that such activities have been carried out
  • confirmation of the date immediately before those activities were carried out; and
  • any available supporting evidence
  • a description of any irreplaceable habitat on the land (on the application date or earlier date proposed by the applicant); and
• a plan showing onsite habitat existing on the date of application, including any irreplaceable habitat that matches the red line boundary of the application site

If this information has not been provided, the local planning authority must refuse to validate the application.  

Submitting the BNG Metric  

Please note that Section 9 of the Metric User Guide states that the metric should be submitted as a macro disabled Excel file. This is because the Planning Portal cannot handle macro-enabled files.