An innovative partnership is helping local planning authorities get fully set up for mandatory biodiversity net gain (BNG).
This year has seen a tidal wave of change in nature compliance as 10 per cent BNG is now a mandatory requirement for many developments in England.
But several studies, including ones by the British Property Foundation and the Green Finance Institute, show that planning departments need more support to deliver on the new biodiversity rules.
The South Downs National Park Authority, one of the UK’s busiest planning authorities, is among those firmly on the front foot and has been leading the way nationally on BNG with its ground-breaking ‘ReNature’ scheme.
The Authority has partnered with Rural Solutions, an industry-leading consultancy supporting developers, agents, businesses and landowners, to offer local planning authorities across England a tailored, seamless set-up service for BNG.
The partnership, called ReNature Through Planning, develops, disseminates and demystifies best practice guidance around nature-based solutions, allowing LPAs to get up-to-speed quickly and navigate the complex system with confidence.
The first of its kind, the set-up package includes a comprehensive set of document templates, training, and consultancy support delivered by Rural Solutions’ national team.
Nicole Wright, Head of Planning at Rural Solutions, said, “A dynamic planning system is key to ensuring development interventions provide optimally designed places and the need for development proposals to consider opportunities for enhancing natural habitats is central to achieving the sustainable development goals. This objective must be pursued with or without the mandatory legal requirement.”
Mark Alden, Nature-based Solutions Manager for the South Downs National Park, said, “With more than 300 planning authorities in England, there’s a big job to be done in terms of making sure that busy, and frankly, often stretched, planning departments are fully up-to-speed on all the changes around Biodiversity Net Gain.
“We’re excited to be working with the team at Rural Solutions who advise on planning applications on a daily basis to offer this set-up service that can make the transition seamless and stress-free.
“The South Downs National Park is proud to be a leading voice nationally around nature-based solutions and we’re now in a very strong position to share our expertise. Working together and sharing best practice, LPAs across England can really supercharge nature recovery and it’s exciting to think what we can achieve.”
Three years ago the National Park Authority launched its ReNature campaign to create 13,000 hectares – over three times the size of Portsmouth – of brand-new habitat to help nature thrive and ensure 33 per cent of the National Park is managed for nature by 2030, while the remaining 67 per cent is nature-friendly.
Since launching the ReNature Campaign, the National Park has helped to create over 400 hectares (almost 640 football pitches) of new wildlife habitat and 4,312 hectares of existing habitat has been improved for nature.
Last year 31 hectares of land at the Iford Estate, East Sussex, became the National Park’s first formally-registered land dedicated to Biodiversity Net Gain provision through a S106 agreement. Several other partnerships are being progressed at farms and estates across the region through the National Park’s ReNature Credits scheme.
Earlier this year the South Downs became the first National Park in the UK to open up a formal scheme for voluntary biodiversity gain to the private sector – meaning that firms of any size across England can invest in high-integrity, meaningful nature recovery. Over 500 hectares of land on farms and country estates across Hampshire and Sussex have already been earmarked for biodiversity restoration through future green finance investment.