Building in Biodiversity (2024)

Introduction

The Government has announced that Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) will be delayed and small and medium sized will be collectively sighing in relief. The House Builders Association (HBA), the housing arm of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), have been the most prominent supporter of BNG and hopes that its five years ‘building in biodiversity’ campaign can now be thoroughly explored for implementation.

After a five-year campaign on onsite solutions and speaking to the Environment Committee during the examination of the Environment Bill before it became an Act, the HBA wrote to ministers in July 2023 with their concerns that BNG was going to harm SMEs the most because they were unable to set enough land aside to deliver the narrow vision of habitats set out by the BNG calculator.

Proposed BNG Solutions

It proposed three solutions, with Option 3 being a modified version of the offers made before BNG was legislated for in the Environment Act.

• For developments of up to fifty homes, require as much onsite BNG as possible but disregard the ten percent expectation
• As above, but includes onsite fabric and design solutions in the metric
• A two-year trial which extends the SSM to fifty homes, including fabric and design onsite solutions in the BNG calculation but capping them at half the BNG requirement, e.g., 5% of 10% is required (preferred option)

The HBA offered several sites for Option 3 because members recognised that industry needed to prove the onsite concept worked