The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed that biodiversity net gain (BNG) rules will come into force on 12 February.
From that date, developers will be required to deliver a 10% BNG on major developments, including residential developments with 10 or more dwellings, or where the site area is greater than 0.5 hectares.
BNG for small sites will apply from 2 April 2024.
Developers will need to carefully assess the habitat on a proposed development site and produce plans on how they will deliver the 10% BNG.
The rules will apply only where the planning application was made on or after 12 February.
Secondary legislation
BNG was introduced through the Environment Act 2021. In November the government published the draft secondary legislation providing details for the BNG framework, including the six statutory instruments which will become law when BNG goes live next month.
“We know there has been particular interest in the wording of the de minimis exemption and the biodiversity gain hierarchy, and we have made clarifications and changes to reflect the discussions we have had with interested stakeholders,” said Defra’s land use policy team on the blog post where it made the launch announcement.
“We will publish further blogs to set those changes out in more detail.”
The implementation of BNG has been delayed twice and was originally scheduled to come into effect last November.
A report by conservation groups published yesterday said that one in six species in Great Britain are at risk of extinction.
