BNG Update: What the Government's Latest Changes Actually Mean

Just before Christmas, the government published the results of their consultation on biodiversity net gain - looking back at how the first year or so had gone and what needed to change.

In early May they followed that up with dates and a bit more certainty on what is happening. Broadly, we're supportive.

A functioning market iterates and improves over time, and a lot of what's been put forward is good common sense.

Here's what's changing...

Small sites are getting an exemption.

Sites under 0.2 hectares - your one and two-house independent developers - will no longer have to deal with the off-site BNG process. And honestly? That makes a lot of sense.

The process of sourcing and buying off-site units is just as complicated whether you're buying one unit or ten. There was no digitised, lightweight version of BNG for micro-transactions, and there never was.

So for that audience, the whole thing was cumbersome. They make up maybe 30% of our leads but less than 8% of the unit requirement - a small fraction of the overall market, but a big slice of the admin burden.

NSIPs are coming in.

Nationally significant infrastructure projects - big schemes that need large amounts of BNG - will be required to comply from this November. That's the other end of the spectrum entirely, and arguably where BNG has the potential to make the biggest impact on nature.

The spatial risk multiplier boundaries are changing.

We're moving from 156 National Character Areas to 48 Local Nature Recovery Strategy areas. In practice, this just means it'll be easier to explain to clients - "here's the region you're in" lands a lot better than "here's your NCA."

Everything stays as-is until July, then the new system kicks in.

Watch this space.

If you have requirements for off-site BNG units, our team is ready to help.