Off-site Biodiversity Net Gain Units
Off-site Biodiversity Net Gain Units
Providing you additional income from your land
Providing you additional income from your land
More income from your land
As part of planning regulations in England, developers are required to replace and enhance any damaged habitat resulting from their developments. This replacement can be done either on-site or off-site.
By creating off-site Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units on your land and selling to developers, you can unlock another stream of income alongside your current farming activities.
Establishing BNG units across your fields, hedgerows, watercourses and woods doesn’t stop you continuing to farm those parcels, you just agree to undertake work and changes through a habitat creation and enhancement plan to deliver a biodiversity net gain.
It’s your choice which areas of your farmland you create BNG units on, and with the use of phasing, you can commit to small areas first and bring on future phases of BNG units once you’ve started to sell the units.
At all times, the parcels of land you establish BNG units on remain under your ownership, with you continuing to farm them.
Free feasibility assessment
- Contact us to arrange a free feasibility assessment
- We visit to do an initial walkover of your land
- We'll discuss potential of off-site BNG on your land
- You decide how to move forward with our help
What are off-site Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units?
Off-site Biodiversity Net Gain Units (BNG) are parcels of land where the landowner commits to undertake habitat creation and enhancement.
Developers buy BNG units to offset the negative impacts developments have on biodiversity and habitat at their sites.
In England, biodiversity net gain is required under a statutory framework introduced by Schedule 7A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (inserted by the Environment Act 2021). This statutory framework is referred to as ‘biodiversity net gain’ in Planning Practice Guidance to distinguish it from other or more general biodiversity gains.
The biodiversity gain condition is a pre-commencement condition: once planning permission has been granted, a Biodiversity Gain Plan must be submitted and approved by the planning authority before commencement of the development.
We manage the process to create and promote off-site BNG units on your land to give you another stream of income
We’ve gone through the process to establish and sell off-site Biodiversity Net Gain units at our farm in North Somerset, so we know how to navigate all the legal requirements and stages to create another stream of income for you with BNG units on your land.
Step 1 – Initial feasibility
- Land potential gain review
- Land title review
Step 2 – Surveys & gain plan
- Baseline habitat & soil survey
- Habitat creation report
- Biodiversity gain plan (BGP)
- Phasing plan
Step 3 – Legal & registration
- Habitat Management & Monitoring Plan (HMMP)
- Due diligence checks
- Conservation covenant
- Register with Natural England
- Legal agreements for each sale
Step 4 – Promotion & sales
- Promotion and sales of BNG units
Step 5 – Land works
- Habitat creation and enhancement works
Step 6 – Monitoring
- Gain site compliance monitoring