Hugh Townsend comments:
“A lot of good news for the BNG market following announcements in Parliament on the 16th December and Royal Assent being given to the Planning and Infrastructure Act on the 18th December.
1. Certainty over exemptions applying on only up to 0.2 ha of non-brownfield sites. We await for the DEFRA modelling in 2026 as to what effect this will have on the percentage of units needed for these exempt sites of the total expected to be sold and therefore the impact on the BNG market. We suspect this will be a much smaller percentage/impact than has already been debated which has been based on the number sales and lot sizes and not the total number of units sold so far, as there have been a very high number of very small lot sizes sold so far, which ends up as a small percentage of total units sold caught by the 0.20 ha site exemption.
2. Increase in demand from NSIPs sites from May 2026 confirmed again which is likely to impact the market earlier that expected with Government taking powers to direct projects outside of the usual development consent process and faster procedures for legal challenges.
3. Likely easing of access to off-site units.
4. Along needed look at making units more useable where an over-delivery on one site can be used on another site. Many developers are interested in stocking up on units for future developments to safe guard themselves. This would simplify the current practice of holding units on trust for the purchaser, releasing them when needed by different sites. Also purchasers regularly ask us what happens if they do not need exactly all the units they have acquired for a particular site due to last minute changes on site. Hopefully we are moving towards more flexibility in the market which will lead to a more efficient and also transparent market for everyone’s benefit, as the amount of trading increases.
5. Introduction of strategic planning at a sub-regional level through Spatial Development Strategies (SDS), to facilitate effective cross-boundary working in some area will speed up development and demand for BNG units.
6. Confirmation again that BNG is excluded from the Nature Restoration Fund scheme.”
Over the past few days, in the build up to the new proposed changes to the NPPF, you may have seen dramatic headlines such as ‘gutting Biodiversity Net Gain’ or ‘BNG rollback’. We suspect some of these snappy headlines may actually have been put forward by those in favour of BNG as a rather counterintuitive means to ‘highlight the dangers of watering requirements down’. Whether this is the case or not, it has now become apparent that such dramatic fears were nothing more than just that – fears.
What we know so far is as follows. It is the Government’s intention:
- To make developments smaller than 0.2 ha exempt from BNG.
- That a new category of medium sized sites of 10-49 units (or up to 2.5 ha) may have an easement in how BNG requirements are applied.
- To have a consultation on the exemption of certain types of brownfield sites up to 2.5 ha.
- Further commitment to BNG applying to NSIPs from May 2026 onwards.
Several proposed changes to the NPPF will also have an impact on BNG. Namely a proposal to limit an LPAs ability to require more than 10% net gain and considering policy on how surplus on-site units may be used to meet the requirements of other sites.
The context of all these ideas is worth noting. Firstly, none of the above constitutes a formal response to any of the BNG consultations released in May earlier this year. We expect to hear from the Government in respect to these in early 2026. Secondly, the proposed changes detailed above are not imminent. They would involve either changes to primary legislation or new secondary legislation and accompanying guidance before any sort of implementation. As such we should not expect to see any practical changes to the current BNG framework for a significant period of time.
In terms of impact, the aim of these proposals is to create a simpler and more coherent planning system that provides greater certainty and speed to developers who meet the necessary requirements. Whilst this an undeniably important objective given our country’s urgent need for housing, many have already raised serious concerns regarding the impact on BNG and, by extension, the environment itself.