Biodiversity net gain regulations to come into force in November 

Please note: This is an older article on biodiversity net gain. To find out the latest information, please read our current blog post on the subject.

From November 2023 onwards, property developers will be required to demonstrate how their proposed developments will meet biodiversity net gain standards, according to new government regulations.

The government wants to ensure that all new buildings are ‘nature positive’, meaning all developers will be required to prove that new housing, commercial and infrastructure developments will give the natural environment an uplift of at least 10% in biodiversity. 

Applicants will be required to provide a ’biodiversity gain plan’ as well as calculations regarding the biodiversity on site before development, and how much biodiversity will be present after development.

The requirements are applicable to nearly all new developments. A few types of development will be exempt, including smaller developments such as householder extensions.

These measures are part of the government’s overall plan to halt species decline by 2030 and were introduced into legislation through the Environment Act.

Visit the Government’s website to find out more about biodiversity net gain regulations and how they apply to your project. 

Check the biodiversity net gain for your project

The Planning Portal have partnered with Joe’s Blooms to provide you with all the information and documentation you need around Biodiversity Net Gain.

With their easy-to-use web tools, Joe’s Blooms allows users to fully understand the biodiversity net gain process. Applicants can use the service to produce compliant documents, by entering all the necessary information relevant to their site.

Joe’s Blooms service allows you to: 

• Find out which requirements apply to your specific site or project 
• Streamline the process of surveying your site 
• Discover possible options for compliance and assess their cost and effectiveness through a simple step-by-step-step process 
• Automatically generate the mandatory documents your planning application needs, tailored to your project and guaranteed to be statutorily compliant 

You can find out more about Joe’s Blooms services here.