Biodiversity Net Gain - LPA Over-reach

[DevilDamo]

On 19/01/2025 at 12:55, Drellingore said:

to assert that we are self-builders and will inhabit the property for three years afterwards.

Which isn’t dis-similar to the CIL self-build requirements.

[Bramco]

Here's a recent one for a plot just down the road from us...

 

Condition 10

 

The residential unit ('unit') hereby permitted shall be constructed as a selfbuild dwelling within the definition of self-build and custom build housing in the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 (As Amended): 

i. The first occupation of the unit shall be by a person or persons who  had primary input into the design and layout of the dwelling;  

ii The Council shall be notified in writing of the persons who intend to take up first occupation of the unit hereby permitted at least two months prior to first occupation.  

 

[In order to comply with Regulation 8 of the Biodiversity Gain Requirements (Exemptions) Regulations 2024 and the statutory biodiversity gain condition required by Schedule 7A to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended)]. 

 

But some small print after the conditions states that according to the Self Build Act, the permission doesn't require a demonstration of BNG 

 

He'd have a heck of a time though trying to sell the plot as a plot with planning permission....

[Alan Ambrose]

Reading the deed, a bunch of things don’t make sense to me:

 

+ it mentions a charge on the title but doesn’t specify an amount. I guess that’s just possible and maybe the LPA can put a hold on a property sale while they demand a ransom for BNG or similar.

 

+ under ‘commencement’ a bunch of things are mentioned that would not normally trigger ‘commencement’ - site clearance, ground and archaeology investigations etc.

 

+ ‘The Owners warrant that no person other than the Owners has any legal or equitable interest in the Property.’ - llike a mortgage company, for instance?

 

+ ‘that the Dwelling shall be constructed only as a Self/Custom Build House’ - as if there’s a separate category of housing akin to agricultural dwelling. Does it stop being a ‘self-build house’ when 3 years are up? How does it change this official status?

 

+ I thought there was a clause which said ‘this all falls away if the house is sold’ but I can’t see that now.

 

More questions that answers, I might be inclined to figure out exactly what the implications are. All-in-all a fantastically complicated mechanism to lock down BNG for self-builds. As a neighbour of mine said yesterday re BNG - you don’t have to be a genius to figure that, before you apply for permission, you should raze the plot removing any flora and fauna …. so that you can claim max ‘gain’. Unintended consequences of badly thought-out ‘rules’?

 

[Fred F]

We had the same issue. I didn’t want to waste time and money on the UU since we already had one for not being able to hit net zero and so have to make a carbon offset contribution. Every time we amend the UU we have to pay the council £540 in costs. It’s such a racket!

 

Instead we paid around £1.5k for an ecologist to calculate the baseline and come up with a plan.

 

Even though we did that I still had a condition to discharge which involved drawing a landscape map showing where the trees would go which was basically a rehash of what the ecologist had already done. I did that myself in PowerPoint. Fortunately it was very easy to discharge that condition.