Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) exemption for self-builders - and going to appeal

[Daniel H]

Hi all

 

We were just about to submit our appeal documents and my PIN friend told me something interesting on BNG which has already cropped up in the forum. They said we either had to have a legal document showing we were self-builders (the UU of others on this forum) or submit a BNG assessment. They said they'd dismissed three cases recently where self-builders didn't do this and there was another on their desk which was going the same way.

 

So my advice is don't stress about it when you're making your initial planning application (planners are busy and won't care unless there's a policy or process locally as some have flagged), but if you're going to appeal you should do one or the other. We've asked our ecologist to do the assessment as I don't want to tie our hands when it comes to being able to get a mortgage for the build.

 

It's not the end of the world if you don't do this - the inspector will still need to write their report before saying 'despite all of this, I'm dismissing it', and you can just resubmit the application (if they find in your favour obvs) with the BNG assessment. A pain but not the showstopper it could be.

 

Hope this helps!

Edited June 9 by jack
Added full wording for BNG in title

[LnP]

@Daniel H I'm a bit confused by your post. Addressing BNG is just another one of the topics you need to address when you make your planning application. If you don't this, your application isn't complete. Your options are:

• claim the self build exemption, but be prepared to sign a unilateral undertaking not to sell your house for 3 years after completion, and pay the LA ~£1000 in legal fees;
• claim the de minimis exemption, if you meet the criteria, i.e. < 25 m²  area habitat and < 5 m linear habitat will be impacted;
• get an ecologist to do the assessment, but since you can't take credit for points added in a private garden, be prepared to buy the offsets you'll need to replace the points lost from your plot by your development plus the 10% you need to add - budget £30,000 - £50,000 for this.

[Daniel H]

Thanks @LnP - all I was flagging was that the LPA is often fine with a statement about being a self-builder in the Planning Statement or similar and therefore exempt from BNG. Ours was and put it in the Officer's Report. It would then only become a problem if you want to go to appeal, with the options you laid out then available. Not much of an exemption and I think there needs to be a simple process for self-builders to certify, rather then the restrictive UUs used at the moment.

[Alan Ambrose]

FYI we had a planning condition saying that the PP was only valid for self-builders. Bit of a cheek, as there was a previous PP which didn't have that condition. That's the doc though we send to suppliers though to demonstrate that we are self-building.

[Oz07]

6 hours ago, LnP said:

@Daniel H 

• get an ecologist to do the assessment, but since you can't take credit for points added in a private garden, be prepared to buy the offsets you'll need to replace the points lost from your plot by your development plus the 10% you need to add - budget £30,000 - £50,000 for this.

Is that how much these credits cost? Daylight robbery

[LnP]

1 hour ago, Oz07 said:

Is that how much these credits cost? Daylight robbery

My planning consultant shared a BNG assessment report from an ecologist for a small garden plot, just 0.015 ha. The baseline area-based habitat score was 0.41 units and the proposed development eliminated all but 0.01 of those units. To replace the lost 0.40 and achieve the 10% net gain, they had to achieve a score of 0.45 units. There was a deficit of 0.43 units. Of these 0.12 units must be of other neutral grassland of medium distinctiveness and 0.29 must be of individual trees of medium distinctiveness. The deficit can be compensated on other off-site land owned by the client, or a financial contribution to off-site ecological enhancements. 

 

There are different places to go to buy credits, but if f you buy statutory credits, there is a "spatial risk multiplier" which doubles the number of units you need to buy. In this case it meant they would have had to buy 0.87 credits which would cost £36,540. There is the option to buy credits in the local market through a registered provider .... and to help you with your project, some ecologists are setting themselves up as registered providers with banks of credits .... which looks like a conflict of interest.

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> other off-site land owned by the client

 

I wonder how many BNG credits you get to the acre?

[SteamyTea]

11 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

>>> other off-site land owned by the client

 

I wonder how many BNG credits you get to the acre?

https://www.agriwebb.com/blog/biodiversity-net-gain-explained/

 

2

[Oz07]

15 hours ago, LnP said:

My planning consultant shared a BNG assessment report from an ecologist for a small garden plot, just 0.015 ha. The baseline area-based habitat score was 0.41 units and the proposed development eliminated all but 0.01 of those units. To replace the lost 0.40 and achieve the 10% net gain, they had to achieve a score of 0.45 units. There was a deficit of 0.43 units. Of these 0.12 units must be of other neutral grassland of medium distinctiveness and 0.29 must be of individual trees of medium distinctiveness. The deficit can be compensated on other off-site land owned by the client, or a financial contribution to off-site ecological enhancements. 

 

There are different places to go to buy credits, but if f you buy statutory credits, there is a "spatial risk multiplier" which doubles the number of units you need to buy. In this case it meant they would have had to buy 0.87 credits which would cost £36,540. There is the option to buy credits in the local market through a registered provider .... and to help you with your project, some ecologists are setting themselves up as registered providers with banks of credits .... which looks like a conflict of interest.

What a load of rubbish. This country seems finished at the minute. I thought we were supposed to be getting Britain building?

 

There's people round here buying up land then selling the credits I have seen in 1 or 2 applications on the portal. At what point do you buy these credits is it before planning or after? If after how is it secured, by condition?

[JohnMo]

9 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

What a load of rubbish. This country seems finished at the minute. I thought we were supposed to be getting Britain building?

 

There's people round here buying up land then selling the credits I have seen in 1 or 2 applications on the portal. At what point do you buy these credits is it before planning or after? If after how is it secured, by condition?

Plus once the planning condition gets a tick no ever looks at it again most likely. The world or UK at least is going mad

[if123]

The frustrating thing in Charnwood is that even though self-builds are exempt from the 10% net gain in BNG, their local policies state that all developments need to have a positive biodiversity net gain. So even though we are planning a self build, we still needed to submit a BNG assessment, and aim for a 1% net gain! ( as well as submit a UU at appeal to prove we are a self build) 

[Alan Ambrose]

Funny how these schemes benefit farmers and other landowners, no? It's almost as though they were well represented in parliament.