General Advice
Northumberland's BNG level is set at 10%.
Northumberland have produced specific guidance that can be accessed at the bottom of this page.
The NPPF states: "applicants are encouraged to consider biodiversity net gain early in the development process and factor it into site selection and design. Where appropriate, they should discuss the biodiversity net gain requirements for their development upfront with the relevant local planning authority utilising any pre-application advice services offered by them. This could help establish whether development proposals would be subject to biodiversity net gain and, if they are, enable feedback on the proposed strategy for achieving the biodiversity gain objective and consideration of the Biodiversity Gain Hierarchy to inform the design of the proposals"
Please note, If you work for the LPA and wish to add additional information, please inform the Joe's Blooms team here.
Pre-Application Advice Service
Northumberland’s pre-application advice service can be found here.
Local Nature Recovery Strategy
Northumberland is part of the North of Tyne Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be found here.
Specific Requirements
Specific BNG Requirements are set out in the BNG Guidance for Developers (adopted January 2024).
The Town and Country Planning Act has been amended to make every grant of planning permission deemed to have been granted subject to the following planning condition: The development may not be begun unless: a) a biodiversity gain plan has been submitted to the planning authority; and b) the planning authority has approved the plan. The purpose of the condition is to secure the biodiversity objective, which is that the biodiversity value attributable to the development exceeds the pre-development biodiversity value of the onsite habitat by at least 10%. This can be achieved through habitat creation or enhancement onsite; the provision or purchase of biodiversity units from a habitat bank; or in a last resort through the purchase of statutory credits; or a mixture of these.
See also the Local Plan.
Strategic Significance
Specific Strategic Significance Requirements are set out in the BNG Guidance for Developers (adopted January 2024).
The options for scoring each habitat parcel are:
High strategic significance - Formally identified in local strategy, plan or policy (this decision must be justified in the ‘Assessor comments’ section of the metric calculation tool). Until the LNRS is available, the following sources of evidence can be used to identify sites of high strategic significance:
On the Baseline Tab:
Land adjacent to Habitats of Principal Importance.
Land adjacent to designated sites (SSSIs, Local Wildlife Sites, Local Nature Reserves.
Land partly or wholly within the Southeast Northumberland National Park Wildlife Network.
On the Habitat Enhancement and Habitat Creation Tabs
Land adjacent to Habitats of Principal Importance on which it is proposed to create habitats of types compatible with the adjacent HPI.
Land adjacent to designated sites (SSSI, Local Wildlife Site, Local Nature Reserve) where the habitats proposed to be created are compatible with the interest features of the designated site. Similarly land within Local Wildlife Sites where proposed enhancement will improve the condition of the LWS.
Proposals that support the Southeast Northumberland National Park Wildlife Network by creating or enhancing habitat within or immediately adjacent to this.
HPI can be found on the DEFRA Magic mapping website. Go to Habitats and Species / Habitats / Other / Priority Habitats Inventory. Boundaries of SSSIs, Local Wildlife Sites, Local Nature Reserves and the Southeast Northumberland National Park Wildlife Network can be found under Local Plan Policy ENV 2 on our Northumberland National Park Development Plan Policies Map.
Medium strategic significance – location ecologically desirable but not identified in a local strategy, plan or policy.
Professional judgement is applied, and the location is deemed ecologically desirable for a particular habitat type, whether recorded in the site baseline, being created or enhanced. The decision should be justified, and evidence provided in the ‘Assessor comments’ section of the metric calculation tool.
Low strategic significance – all other sites.
Extra Reading