When you purchase units with BNGx, we prepare the documentation you need to get on with your planning application. Here's what you get, and what to do with it.
What documents have I got?
Buyer's Guide: a handy (we hope!) guide to what to do next with your purchase. Complementary to this guide.
Biodiversity Metric: you'll receive a statutory biodiversity metric file, containing all of your on-site data and all of the data about your new off-site units. This is the file your Local Planning Authority (LPA) will want to see. If your original metric was a Small Site Metric, your LPA will want to see both the original SSM and your new statutory metric with its off-site units.
Sale and Purchase Agreement(s): you'll have a copy of the Sale and Purchase Agreement formed - and completed - between you and any suppliers who were part of the bundle you purchased (i.e. one per supplier in your bundle). This document includes an annex at its end listing the specific habitat (and amount thereof) sold to you as part of that agreement, which will match the entries in your new biodiversity metric file.
Natural England Allocation Form(s): you'll receive a Natural England Allocation Form for each supplier in your bundle. You'll use this to show you've got the relevant landowner's permission when recording the allocation of your new units to your development.
So what do I do with them?
Your Local Planning Authority will tell you, in the first instance, how they'd like you to proceed. However, as a rule of thumb:
Your Local Planning Authority (LPA) will want to see your new metric with its off-site biodiversity units. (And if your original metric was a small site metric, they will want to see that too.)
We recommend you provide the Sale and Purchase Agreement(s) as well, to show your LPA evidence you have really purchased these units - our SPAs include digital lineage features that LPAs can use to independently confirm the veracity of your documents.
When you are advised to do so, you can use your new metric file and the Natural England Allocation Form(s) to record the allocation of your units with Natural England. You do this via Natural England's web portal - details are in your Buyer's Guide PDF, which accompanied your completed Metric file and completed Sale and Purchase Agreement.