Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)
BNG is a mandatory requirement for development sites, set by central government. Development must deliver BNG of 10% by providing more or better quality habitat than there was before the development.
There have been recent changes to BNG requirements for planning applications. There is now a requirement to include an assessment of existing individual trees for most sites, with certain exemptions. We have updated our tree surveying methodology so that we are recording sufficient information to inform this assessment. We are working closely with ecologists to ensure that they have the necessary tree and hedgerow data to make BNG assessments as part of planning applications.
More information about BNG requirements is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-biodiversity-net-gain
A check can be made to determine if a BNG assessment is needed for a planning application here: The BNG Exemption Checker – Joe’s Blooms (joesblooms.com)