Resourcing biodiversity net gain for local authorities

Natural environment and ecological skills and expertise required by local authorities to deliver BNG include: habitat survey and classification, using metrics in habitat assessment, environmental impact assessment and mitigation, and interpreting results and critical analysis.

Where a council already has access to natural environment/ecological support, existing staff will usually have the skills and expertise to deliver BNG requirements, but additional resource may be required and some training and upskilling will probably be needed, e.g. on the Biodiversity Metric. It’s likely to be most efficient to employ staff or contract external input to cover wider ecological and natural environment advice alongside BNG. More advice on sourcing natural environment expertise below. 

Once the mandatory requirement for BNG is in place, it will be a legislative requirement, so there will be no need to repeat the legal requirements in local policy. However, we would encourage LPAs to develop a locally specific BNG policy for the various reasons set out here. The Council may also wish to take an integrated policy approach to planning for the environment in their area.

Biodiversity net gain will be required for most planning applications, so Development Management (DM) officers will need to be aware of the requirements and understand when to seek specialist input and advice. This will need to be factored in early in the process to meet timescales for determination. This is likely to require some additional learning and development for DM officers. Increasing the capacity and expertise of DM officers in assessing BNG and ecological aspects of planning applications will help to reduce pressure on specialists.

It may be worth considering changes to validation processes and/or training for validation staff, so that applications not accompanied by the correct BNG documentation are not validated.

If your approach to BNG is to be successful, compliance will need to be checked – making sure that habitats have been delivered and are being managed and maintained in accordance with the planning permission and associated legal agreements  - and that non-compliance is enforced against. This will require specialist skills to meet the requirements of the legislation.

Offsite delivery of biodiversity net gain will require legal agreements to be in place for at least 30 years and if a local authority sets up their own offsite scheme, further legal input will be needed. Monitoring of BNG should be secured through the legal agreements, but reports will need to be checked over the duration of the agreement.

A national digital biodiversity gain site register is being developed by Natural England, which will cover offsite BNG sites. Local authorities will need to make sure they are recording and have access to the right data to monitor compliance and report on BNG delivery both on- and off-site over time.

Other skills and expertise will also come into play, especially if the local authority sets up their own scheme for delivering offsite BNG: - Coordination & Project Management - Finance & Property Services - Estates/Land Management - Negotiation

Bolsover District Council have a SLA with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, which covers ecological advice on both planning applications and policy. Planning applications are by exception, i.e. officers send them on for the Trust to provide advice, but occasionally the Trust pick them out from planning lists themselves. The arrangement generally works well for Bolsover DC as the Trust have the expertise, including local knowledge of the district and provide good advice.

Recently, Bolsover DC have commissioned the Trust separately to prepare a local nature recovery network for the district. The Trust is also involved in the county-level Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) and Bolsover hope this work on their local network will nest into the LNRS and provide a level of detail more relevant to the district level. Their Principal Planning Officer project manages and oversees work on this and wider environmental and BNG work to ensure join-up and links to policy and planning delivery across the district.  

Place Services is a leading public sector consultancy set up by Essex County Council to provide ecological services to councils in Essex, London, the south east and east of England, also covering landscape, archaeology and historic environment advice. They currently have pay-as-you-go SLAs for ecology with 16 LPAs across England and 100% profit goes to Essex CC for their wider services. Some of these LPAs have their own ecologists but not enough capacity to cover all that the LPA needs. The wider teams support green infrastructure and environmental projects, countryside management services for country parks and county highways.

There are currently nine ecologists in the team. Each LPA has one lead, but there is flexibility in the team to cover for each other. They offer a flexible arrangement (e.g. can offer cover when LPA staff are on extended leave/secondment) and aim to be part of the LPA's team. Because they count as part of shared services, it offers an easy contracting option for LPAs.

The bulk of their work is Development Management – LPAs send them the applications they want advice on - but they also input to policy including Local Plan BNG assessments when required and provide training for both officers and members. They have recently worked on two Biodiversity SPDs which promote BNG, currently awaiting publication. They also cover pre-application advice, including on BNG, and will meet with applicants as part of this service.

Warwickshire County Council have been running their BNG scheme since 2012, when they were a Defra biodiversity offsetting pilot. They provide an ecology, archaeology and landscape service to all but two of the Warwickshire LPAs, plus Coventry and Solihull, funded by SLAs, although a 'free' BNG service has been taken up by all LPAs in Warwickshire. The holistic service screens all planning applications covering all ecological issues, species and habitats, i.e. NERC Act duties and planning requirements. They also provide advice on planning policy and a pre-application discretionary advice service to developers.

The 14-strong ecological team has flexibility to cover different aspects of the work, which means that more staff can be pulled in if planning application numbers are high, plus it gives staff a range of skills and makes the job more interesting. They have skills in understanding financial aspects and viability, plus how the development cycle works, not just ecology. This means they can provide solutions-focused advice to LPAs and developers and for example, work with land agents considering land prices at an early stage. A recent gap in the team of habitat management and creation skills - undertaking condition assessments, finding sites, etc – has recently been filled to help with their offsite BNG scheme.

Cheshire West and Chester Council employs three biodiversity officers (though one of those posts is currently vacant), providing ecological advice on planning applications and planning policy, natural environment project work and administering their Great Crested Newt District Level Licensing scheme.

The Council has a no net biodiversity loss policy in their Local Plan that refers to the Biodiversity Metric, alongside a local ecological network policy, and is developing an interim advice note on BNG in advance of the statutory requirements. These have been developed through close working between Planning Policy, DM and the biodiversity officers, with a focus on what can realistically be delivered with the resources and skills available to them and a view that their approach can move forward over time.

At the moment, the Biodiversity Metric is applied on major applications and requested on minor applications on a case by case basis, mainly on those with priority habitats on site. Based on this experience, they are considering how the small sites Metric may be used in the future. They are developing an offsite BNG scheme with around 0.5FTE dedicated to habitat creation work. They’re also looking at how BNG and carbon offsetting can be linked and how BNG delivers to address the Council’s declared climate emergency. It is recognised that additional resources will be required both in terms of specialist expertise, but also in DM, as they move towards an approach that meets the mandatory BNG requirements. 

Plymouth Council have a Natural Infrastructure team that provides advice to DM on planning applications, alongside working on planning policy, plus environmental projects, countryside services and parks. This allows a joined up cross-Council approach to BNG on- and offsite delivery. Their BNG approach has been developed over time in a step-wise way that is integrated with the Council’s wider place-making strategy.

Natural Infrastructure team advice is trusted by council planners because of their solutions-focused approach and a broad understanding by officers of how the natural environment contributes to place-making in the city. Two full-time ecologists work on applications, covering all ecological issues and greenspace. Surgeries are held for DM officers to discuss issues and manage potential conflicts with other aims, find compromises and mitigations, etc. There is also strong political support for BNG to be delivered on all planning applications. 

Stockport Council’s Nature Development Officer, alongside the countryside officer the Senior Arboriculture and Habitat Officer in the Neighbourhoods Team (previously Parks), covers all ecological advice on planning alongside other council ecological issues, including countryside site management plans.

Stockport don't have a BNG policy in their Local Plan yet although current policy encourages biodiversity enhancement. Their Nature Development Officer uses current policy plus the NPPF to engage with developers of major applications at pre-application stage and asks developers to use the DEFRA Biodiversity Metric to demonstrate delivery of net gain as well as include biodiversity enhancements that aren’t measured in the habitat-based Metric. The officer is also working with Planning Policy colleagues to develop a Biodiversity Planning Advisory note and look at future planning policy, recognising that a strategic, proactive approach will be much easier than the current reactive one. It’s difficult to keep up with the level of work in the borough and additional resources and expertise will be needed as Stockport move forward on their BNG journey.