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

Here's what's changing...

We visited Nattergal, one of the UK's most ecologically ambitious habitat banks. It was a day that reinforced exactly why we believe the biodiversity net gain market is heading somewhere genuinely significant…

Key members of the Biodiversity Units UK team will be in Leeds on Wednesday 20 May. We're there to talk units, pricing, supply, and the practicalities of getting BNG sorted without it becoming a blocker on your project.

Following last week’s Government announcements on Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), we wanted to take a moment to digest the detail and share a perspective focused on what this means for the market - particularly for developers and habitat banks.

We've launched the Planners for BNG Directory - England's first public directory of planning consultants who have successfully navigated BNG projects.

On March 25th we hosted our first monthly Lunch & Learn: "How to Buy BNG at the Right Price". Over 120 attendees and the best part was the questions - which were incisive and wide ranging.

We recently helped a client reduce their Biodiversity Net Gain expected costs from £6 million to £4 million. Not by cutting corners or reducing their biodiversity obligations - but by questioning the assumptions in their ecological report and finding more practical solutions within the BNG framework.

Mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain comes into force for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) on May 2026. These projects routinely cross multiple Local Planning Authority boundaries and Natural Character Areas - which creates three clear commercial challenges.

It has become apparent that many people approaching the BNG purchase process for the first time are unclear on what it entails, and the prices they can expect to pay. So we've decided to do something about it - every month.

Since mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain came into force, one thing has become very clear: developers, planning consultants and ecologists have a lot of questions.

Within three days we'd evaluated the metric against BNG legislation and Barnsley Council's requirements, and come back with a range of BNG unit supply options and pricing.

We're now creating Nature Positive awards for clients, sending them a certificate to showcase on site, in head offices, or wherever they choose.  So you can tangibly see what was done and where - on the wall for all to see. 

Timed to launch with the two year anniversary of Biodiversity Net Gain - now includes data from 165 habitat banks. This edition is both updated and expanded.

We wanted to reflect on where the industry had come in the last year - so we canvassed our colleagues across the industry and gathered their perspectives. They make for fantastic reading,

Inclusion of NSIPs is a significant development for nature conservation. It's also beneficial for infrastructure projects themselves, as BNG removes environmental ambiguity through the planning process: a core benefit of the legislation.

What's quite interesting in our data is that these small sites make up maybe 30% of the leads coming into our business, but only 8% of the actual total unit sales. That's because they're all such small amounts.

We have appointed Will Moore as a new Commercial Director - following our strongest year of growth since launching in 2023. 

Over three years working with developers across England, we've seen the same pattern: people trying to decode a DEFRA Metric spreadsheet. Then, once you have that figured out you need to get a cost.  So we built something better: The BNG Calculator

In this short video, Jen Stott, Operations Manager at Biodiversity Units UK, walks through the Biodiversity Gain Plan template section by section and explains how to complete it in a way that satisfies your local planning authority and clearly demonstrates your 10 percent net gain.

In this short explainer, Jen from Biodiversity Units UK breaks down what a Biodiversity Gain Plan (BGP) is, why it’s required for planning applications, and what developers need to include to demonstrate their 10% Biodiversity Net Gain. Whether you’re an ecologist, planner, or developer, this video gives you a clear overview of how the BGP ties together your baseline data, metric calculations, and habitat enhancements.