23 August 2023
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What progress on the implementation of mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain in England?

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One of the flagship measures in the Environment Act 2021, the mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain regime will require most planning permissions granted in England to deliver at least a 10% net gain on the site's pre-development biodiversity value.   The Government's intention is for this new regime to take effect in November.  This briefing considers the Government's progress towards that goal following the publication of its consultation response on the implementation of BNG earlier this year, which set out a lengthy list of actions for the Government.  We provide our thoughts on what the Government has done to date, what remains outstanding and where this leaves things for the proposed November implementation.

This briefing, the latest in our series on Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), checks in on the Government’s progress towards the implementation of the mandatory BNG regime for certain town and country planning applications in November.

Time flies

Six months have now passed since the Government published its response to the consultation on the implementation of BNG undertaken in early 2022.  This consultation response was the subject of this briefing (which also contains links to our previous briefings setting out the back story to the new BNG regime).  We concluded that, whilst the Government’s consultation response reiterated its long standing intention of introducing mandatory BNG in November 2023, there was a lot of critical detail about the new regime still to come in the meantime.

Given that November is now fast approaching, what progress has the Government made on the not inconsiderable “to do” list within its February consultation response?

New Guidance
Additional assistance for local authorities
Still to come
Concluding thoughts

Next steps

If you would like to know more about BNG or otherwise require any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Planning & Infrastructure Consenting Team.

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