Exemptions to Biodiversity Net Gain on brownfield sites announced in the Budget.
5 min read
In the Budget delivered on Wednesday 28 October, the UK Government pushed through new exemptions to Biodiversity Net Gain for some developments on brownfield sites.
This decision prioritises developer profits at the expense of nature and local communities. It’s an additional exemption to a growing list, dismantling one of the few policies that channels development funding into nature recovery.
Under Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), most developments are meant to deliver at least a 10% improvement in biodiversity, either within that local area or by funding habitat creation elsewhere. If it works properly, BNG could bring green spaces into communities, improve health and wellbeing, and help tackle the UK’s nature crisis.
But, with its ever-growing list of exemptions, BNG is not only being rendered ineffective – it’s now deepening nature inequality for already deprived communities.
Brownfield is a word used in the planning process to describe a site that has been previously developed on. This includes land which had a permanent structure and can also include ex-quarries and gravel pits. It’s easy to assume that these places aren’t as valuable for nature as ‘greenfield’ sites: land that has previously been undeveloped. But this simply isn’t true!
Agricultural greenfield land that has been intensively used will often have limited biodiversity value, while brownfield sites can be biodiversity hotspots. Just take a look at Canvey Wick – an ex-oil refinery, which is now home to 3,200 species, including rare Nightingales and Shrill Carder bees.
In the Budget, the Government announced that residential developments on brownfield sites up to 1.5 hectares would be exempt from contributing towards Biodiversity Net Gain – regardless of their value to nature.
This comes despite experts, environmental organisations and tens of thousands of members of the public responding to a recent consultation on the issue. Together, we called for BNG to be strengthened at this critical time for nature, not weakened.
Now, we have yet another exemption that chips away at BNG’s original goal – and each creates opportunities to be exploited to the detriment of nature. Take ‘de minimis’: this exemption allows developers on smaller sites to ‘self-declare’ their value for nature. It’s being widely abused, allowing developments that should qualify for BNG to avoid contributing altogether.
Evidence from the first year of BNG shows that around 86% of planning applications have claimed exemptions, and the de minimis route alone has accounted for more than half of all cases.
And it’s not just nature that suffers.
A study released earlier this year, the Green Gap, shows that communities from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are disproportionately affected by these exemptions and loopholes.
Another recent exemption disqualifies sites under 0.2 hectares from contributing to BNG. These smaller sites are more likely to be found in deprived areas. Brownfield land is also much more common in deprived places, meaning that more than four in five applications in these areas could fall outside BNG requirements altogether.
The BNG system was designed to benefit everyone. It was meant to ensure that, as new homes are built, communities become greener and healthier as developers contribute fairly to restoring nature.
The RSPB will continue to call for this flagship policy to be restored and strengthened, so it can genuinely start delivering the benefit for nature it so desperately needs.
