Policy DM4: Protection and Enhancement of Biodiversity and Geodiversity
Natural England generally welcomes this policy however we suggest that the reference to Biodiversity Net Gain should be strengthened both in the policy wording itself and the accompanying text to better reflect the recent government advise on this topic and the likelihood that net gain will become mandatory in the proposed Environment Bill.
We acknowledge that biodiversity metrics have been referenced within paragraph 5.56 however it is written in terms of compensatory habitat and we would suggest that the Biodiversity Net Gain approach is broader than this.
Biodiversity net gain is a demonstrable gain in biodiversity assets as a result of a development project that may or may not cause biodiversity loss, but where the final output is an overall net gain. Net gain outcomes can be achieved both on and/or off the development site and should be embedded into the development process at the earliest stages.
The government has recently announced that it will mandate net gains for biodiversity on new developments in England to deliver an overall increase in biodiversity. Furthermore net gain is referenced in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), and is included within the government’s 25 year plan “A Green Future”.
New Metrics have been developed for calculating the amount of biodiversity required to achieve net gain. The ‘Biodiversity Metric 2.0’ provides a way of measuring and accounting for biodiversity losses and gains resulting from development or land management change. The advantage of using a recognised metric to deliver net gain is that it provides a clear, transparent and evidence-based approach to assessing a project’s biodiversity impacts that can assist with “de-risking” a development through the planning process and contribute to wider place-making. It can be found here ‘Biodiversity Metric 2.0’