Lewisham’s BNG level is set at 10%.

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.

Lewisham’s pre-application advice service can be foundhere.

Lewisham is part of the Greater London Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be foundhere.

Specific BNG requirements are set out in Policy 10.18 of the Local Plan (adopted January 2023).

The BNG benchmark is a minimum 10 percent increase in habitat value for wildlife compared with the pre-development baseline, calculated using an appropriate Biodiversity Metric. The Lewisham Local Plan Viability Assessment (2022) indicates that this requirement will have a negligible impact on development viability. Policy GR3.E will be used as a guide until such time further legislation and national policy take effect. BNG should normally be delivered on-site. However flexibility may be applied on a case-by-case basis where it is demonstrated that on-site provision is not feasible or off-site contributions will provide greater biodiversity benefits, for example, by contributing to the restoration or recovery of habitats within sites or areas identified in a LNRS or other similar document. Development proposals should refer to good practice guidance such as the British Standard BS 8683:2021 Process for designing and implementing Biodiversity Net Gain.

See also the BNG page.

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