Swale’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.

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

Swale is part of the Kent and Medway Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be found here.

Specific BNG Requirements are set out in Policy 5.6.7 of the Local Plan (July 2017).

Part of avoiding impacts and achieving net gains for biodiversity is mitigation and, as a last resort, compensation. Development proposals must safeguard what is important, introduce new features and mitigate the remaining impacts, including use of compensation where unacceptable harm remains or where a net gain in biodiversity can be achieved. In such cases the Council will use existing, and develop new mechanisms to ensure adequate compensation.

See also the BNG Page.

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