Get prepared
The biodiversity metric has been designed to reduce the loss of better-quality habitats to development. This is done by making them significantly more expensive to provide net gain for compared to lower value habitats.
It is important to establish the value of a site as early as possible when considering the development potential.
The loss of higher value habitats may make a scheme non-viable. It may mean that parts of the site are safeguarded from development to enable an economically viable scheme to be developed.
Clearing sites in advance
Within Schedule 14 of the Environment Act, measures have been included that allow the local planning authority to take account of any habitat degradation or destruction undertaken on a site since January 2020.
They must also take the earlier habitat state as the baseline for the purposes of biodiversity net gain. This ensures that there is nothing to be gained by the deliberate clearance of land to achieve a low baseline value for biodiversity net gain.
If habitats on site have been destroyed or degraded before a survey and submission of planning application, the earlier habitat state will be taken as the baseline for the purposes of the biodiversity metric. A habitat condition score of ‘good’ will be allocated to the habitat parcel as a precaution.