Planning applications
All planning permissions will be subject to a pre-commencement condition. This requires the submission of a plan that demonstrates how 10% net gain will be achieved.
The management of the habitat created to achieve this must then be secured by legal agreement for a minimum period of 30 years.
The habitat creation required to achieve 10% net gain should be undertaken on the development site itself. If space and circumstances do not allow this, provision on a separate site or a mixture of the 2 would be considered.
Offsite habitat creation can be undertaken on land owned by the developer. It can also be on third party land. The landowner must be willing to undertake such work and maintain it for at least 30 years in return for a payment from the developer.
The government is introducing a national biodiversity credits purchase system. This is for developments unable to meet their biodiversity net gain requirements locally. National biodiversity credits are a last resort. They will be much more expensive than securing biodiversity units more locally. Evidence must be provided that all reasonable efforts have been made to buy the additional habitat creation locally.