General Advice
Local validation requirements here
Forest of Dean’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.
Pre-Application Advice Service
Forest of Dean’s pre-application advice service can be foundhere.
Local Nature Recovery Strategy
Forest of Dean is part of the Gloucestershire Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be found here.
Specific Requirements
Specific BNG Requirements are set out in the BNG Guidance (adopted February 2024).
No development can commence until a Biodiversity Gain Plan (BGP) has been submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority (LPA). BNG will need to be calculated using the Statutory Biodiversity Metric and be secured for at least 30 years via planning obligations or conservation covenants. BNG can be delivered on-site, off-site or via a new statutory biodiversity credits scheme. However, the Biodiversity Gain Hierarchy (BGH), which local planning authorities must take account of when determining the Biodiversity Gain Plan, emphasises that onsite biodiversity gains should be considered first followed by registered offsite biodiversity gains and – as a last resort – biodiversity credits. Mandatory BNG will only apply to new applications for planning permission for major developments made on or after 12 February 2024 and on or after the 2 April 2024 for minor developments and not to applications made prior to this. This guidance aims to:
provide standard advice that can be used by all Local Planning Authorities (LPA) and planning applicants across Gloucestershire. It sets out the factors and key requirements that LPAs will need to take into consideration to ensure that all relevant new development achieves a minimum 10% Biodiversity Net Gain throughout the development management process.
support applicants, professional ecologists, working on behalf of planning applicants and planning consultants by providing them with the level of information required to accompany planning applications, giving practical advice and step-by-step guidance on how development and associated land use change proposals will need to comply with the Environment Act 2021.
A new Local Plan is currently being developed.
Strategic Significance
Specific Strategic Significance Requirements are set out in Policy 3.3.3 of the BNG Guidance (adopted February 2024).
High: Where the location has been identified within a local plan, strategy or policy as being ecologically important for the specific habitat type or where that habitat has been identified as being locally ecologically important.
Medium: Where there is no relevant plan, strategy or policy in place, professional judgement may be used to justify the use of the medium strategic significance category. This judgement should consider the importance of that habitat in providing a linkage between other strategic locations.
Low: If the habitat is not included in local plans, strategy or policy, and there is no evidence to suggest that the habitat is of medium strategic significance.