…a blog by Buglife Programmes Manger, Jamie Robins following the Government’s announcement to retreat on requirements for Biodiversity Net Gain on small sites.
Yesterday the Government announced major planning reform proposals that will continue the regressive narrative of pitting nature against growth, and hints at more green lighting of developments without proper assessments to come.
The Government plans to retreat on requirements for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), on some small sites, that only became mandatory as recently as April 2024. BNG aims to make sure that habitats for wildlife are left in a measurably better state than they were before developments – with 10% more biodiversity than was originally there. Indeed, it was once heralded as a key solution to accelerating nature recovery in England, amid bold predictions that it would “play its part in enabling nature to thrive and to deliver nature-based solutions to climate change.” We were assured that wildlife would be left better off than it was before developments pave over natural habitats, and that BNG would drive “better-quality places for wildlife to live and thrive and for people to enjoy.”
Just last month Buglife announced the results of the fifth year of its Bugs Matter surveys – revealing that across the UK, bug splats on vehicle number plates had declined an incredible 59% since 2021- corresponding to a 19% decrease each and every year. We live in a nature depleted country where actions to restore biodiversity need to happen now. This is not the time to reduce our ambition for nature recovery and clear the path for unrestrained development.
Yesterday’s announcement exempting all sites under 0.2ha undermines efforts to restore nature and the use of BNG as a meaningful tool to revive our degraded landscapes. Our conservation partners have estimated that this will mean a worrying 77% of planning applications will now be exempt from BNG. This will result in an area the size of Windsor Forest not being restored every year to make up for losses to increasingly unrestrained development. It will stop developers having to create the small areas that provide stepping stones of habitat, wildlife corridors and oases in the landscape that help to support invertebrates, especially across our towns and cities. These pockets of flowers, trees or ponds are the hotspots where nature can hold on and move across an increasingly challenging landscape. They are also places where we can connect with nature, where we experience butterflies, beetles and spiders, and where opportunity lies for the next generation learn to appreciate the wildlife on their doorstep. Removing BNG for small sites means there will be fewer of these spaces, threatening the wildlife that we all enjoy and undermining the Government’s commitment to nature recovery.
Concerningly, there are also proposals for future BNG exemptions on brownfield sites up to 2.5ha – an area the size of three and a half football pitches. Brownfields can be islands of wildlife-rich habitat in otherwise barren landscapes – the last wildflower-filled refuges in concrete urban spaces. Further proposals for a default ‘yes’ for development on brownfield sites and land around stations also abandons the important principle that sites should be assessed on their own merits. Their individual importance for wildlife should be considered in decisions, not determined by unhelpful labels or zoning of the landscape.
The Environment Act in 2021 set out a legally binding target to prevent species extinctions by 2030 and to increase their populations by at least 10% of current levels by 2042. This hinges on the restoration or creation of 500,000ha of wildlife-rich habitat, including funding from BNG. Meanwhile we were told that BNG was designed to work with the growing network of Local Nature Recovery Strategies across the country – what does this change mean for their future?
Alongside our nature conservation partners, we urge the Government to retain the BNG requirement for all small sites as an urgent priority and to retain the important site by site assessments that have underpinned our planning system for years. Nature is not the blocker to growth that has been presented, but an essential part of a successful and thriving economy. This latest action again sees the Government suggest falsely that growth has to be at the expense of nature – that it is either or, that removing the commitment to BNG and sacrificing wildlife-rich brownfields is a necessary step. But it is not a choice between nature and growth, we can have housing in the right places, whilst protecting and restoring nature.
We will be working with our conservation partners in 2026 to continue standing up for wildlife in the face of dangerous changes to the planning system.