The Government has said Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), which was due to become a mandatory part of the planning system in England in November, will now not be implemented on time. The Government claims that it is still committed to the policy, and it will announce a new implementation date.
So where does this leave landowners, developers, and the planning system?
Sarah Clark, Partner at lawyers BDB Pitmans commented: “This isn’t unexpected as the question on my clients’ lips in recent weeks has been will it happen? Landowners who were hoping to add their land to the new Biodiversity site register will certainly be disappointed as this was due to be an important new income source for many of them. It does feel like a politically driven delay given the tone of recent announcements from No. 10 on green matters.
“Until a new timetable for implementation is announced and the draft regulations are published, local authorities, developers and landowners alike are left with considerable uncertainty about when these significant changes will take effect.
“The pricing of statutory biodiversity credits, which can be bought from the Government as an option of last resort if BNG cannot be delivered, announced in the summer was considered high by many developers and they will unquestionable drive up the value of land on the Biodiversity register.
“More broadly and on the ‘levelling up’ agenda this will have implications for landowners outside of the South East who would have had more opportunity to realise land value which has typically been lower due to grade and location.
“Some local authorities have planning policies in place which already require BNG but there are still a lot of projects which don’t deliver on it. Planning applications which have been made already won’t be affected by today’s news and there will be some developers who will be pleased about the delay as they can get applications planned for submission later this year into the system before the new requirements take effect.”
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