Government urged to rethink biodiversity net gain exemptions

A coalition of 140 academics, lawyers, business leaders and experts from across the construction and built environment sector, have published an open letter asking the Government to retain Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements for small sites and adopt a more proportionate approach to reform arguing that changes would “weaken confidence in the emerging nature investment market at precisely the moment when it is beginning to accelerate”.

The Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) mandate, which came into force in early 2024, mandates housing developers to deliver at least a 10% uplift in biodiversity on their sites. Where this is not possible, they may be eligible to financially contribute to nature restoration projects off-site through the purchase of verified biodiversity credits. The BNG principle is simple, it is an approach to development that, on its completion, leaves biodiversity in a better state than before.

Introduced through the 2021 Environment Act, the aim of the mandate was to address the UK’s nature decline and improve public access to nature while accelerating housebuilding.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Development revealed in May that it would like to significantly weaken the BNG mandate requirements for property developers delivering sites of up to nine homes.

These so-called small sites account for around 70% of the residential planning applications in the UK each year.

Additionally, the Government wants to introduce a new ‘medium-sized site’ category for developments of between 10 and 49 homes, with more stringent BNG requirements than for small sites, but less burden than for larger sites.

One of the letter’s author, the UK Green Building Council is urging Ministers to rethink, saying “Maintaining BNG for small sites is not red tape; it is the bare minimum needed to avoid leaving nature and communities worse off. Retreating now would embed the long-term costs of more flooding, poorer air quality, hotter urban areas, weakened local nature recovery, and forego the economic opportunity of a thriving nature market.”

The call to action has been convened by the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) and the Green Construction Board. It has been sent to the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government as well as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

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