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DEFRA has published a further consultation on the biodiversity metric to be used for assessing biodiversity net gain under the Environment Act 2021

DEFRA has published a further consultation on the biodiversity metric to be used for assessing biodiversity net gain under the Environment Act 2021 to be introduced from November 2023. It is to be used in conjunction with planning permissions and other development activity and at this stage just relates to England.

This proposes to update Biodiversity Metric 3.1 to Metric 4.0 and also introduce a Small Sites Metric for sites of up to 0.5 hectares or up to 10 dwellings on less than 1 hectare.

This is a tool for scoring different habitat types based on their relative vale to wildlife, calculating biodiversity losses and gains. Firstly landowners and developers will need to calculate the baseline for biodiversity units before the development takes place and then post-development biodiversity units are to be calculated using the same assessment as previously but additionally further risk factors will need to be factored in.

The current biodiversity metric shows the percentage change after the proposed post-development habitat changes have been included, leaving you to establish what further enhancement is needed. The current consultation proposes to show any current shortfall and whether the actual net gain required post development has been met.

The consultation closes on 27th September 2022 and will be important in terms of informing landowners decisions and how developers will meet the objectives of delivering biodiversity net gain through their developments. It will also be important to see how the market and value created for delivering these biodiversity units develops particularly where they cannot be delivered on site or within land already within the developers or landowners control.

William Young Director at Newton LDP says:

“This is a quickly evolving area and is entwined with many other issues and initiatives in terms of carbon, land use, environmental schemes, tax, and land tenure to name a few. Moving forward it will require careful consideration as landowners assess their longer-term objectives and this will need to be balanced against any short-term requirement. Biodiversity Net Gain will become ever more important and the requirements for net gain are very likely to increase in the future. This potentially offers landowners access to a new market both in terms of capital receipts and a potential income stream in return for delivering this net gain through the management of their land over time. It also offers landowners and developers the opportunity to work collaboratively to deliver wider benefits by delivering larger or more joined up initiatives rather than working in isolation on multiple sites.”