Revised Role for Nature in Planning Values Sense Over Sensation

Media reports of briefings by the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s office suggest that she is keen to keep the growth that development brings front and centre of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill that is currently going through its parliamentary stages.

In cutting through the sensational press coverage referencing buildings taking preference over ‘bats and newts’, Eddisons’ planning team is keen to point out that a reassessment of competing priorities between the built and natural worlds is not unreasonable in referencing the current legal requirements of the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) policy.

As it stands, BNG requirements are mandatory for all development other than individual householder, self-build or development affecting less than 25 sq m of non-priority habitat.

What the recent briefings seem to suggest is that there will be a focus on protecting species that are rare in the UK rather than the whole of Europe - the latter being the governing framework in which the BNG policy was formulated.

Indeed, Eddisons feels that this shift acknowledges the success of previous biodiversity interventions that have resulted in some species in the UK no longer being at risk.

The new proposed ‘nature restoration fund’ is a way of contributing to conservation schemes off-site. However, as the firm’s planners point out, this is already an option under current regulations. Developers can purchase biodiversity credits where it is not practical or possible to provide on-site biodiversity net gain.

Summarising Eddisons’ response to the proposed revisions, as reported in the media, Kate Wood, Planning Director, said, “Rationalising the system can only be a positive move and there is no indication that important and rare species are not going to be protected.”