Biodiversity Net Gain now mandatory for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects
The UK Government aims to deliver major infrastructure projects while also protecting and restoring nature at scale.
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is a development approach aiming to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than before construction.
The government has published guidance on how BNG requirements can be met, encouraging developers to consider BNG from the earliest stages of project design and engage with relevant stakeholders to inform their proposals.
The guidance also delivers on the recommendations of the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce Review to introduce a streamlined BNG framework for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIPs). This means:
- BNG applies only to habitats impacted by development, rather than the entire development site.
- Biodiversity gains can be delivered either onsite or offsite in the first instance
- Streamlined requirements apply where developments have temporary impacts
Work is underway on the second phase of reforms, which include an exemption for development whose primary objective is to conserve or enhance biodiversity and a targeted exemption for development that enhances parks, playing fields and public gardens. There also changes to the statutory biodiversity metric in the pipeline.
The guidance on Biodiversity net gain: nationally significant infrastructure projects has been published by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
