South Gloucestershire’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.

South Gloucestershire’s pre-application advice service can be found here.

South Gloucestershire is part of the West of England Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be found here.

Specific BNG Requirements are set out in Policy 6 of the Biodiversity SPD (adopted March 2023).

Applying BNG is not an alternative approach to applying the biodiversity mitigation hierarchy. Applicants are still expected to avoid or mitigate harm to wildlife and habitats before seeking to compensate. Avoidance and on-site mitigation and compensation must be carried out before any off-site compensation (biodiversity offsetting) is planned, i.e., the mitigation hierarchy must be followed first. Biodiversity offsetting is a last-resort option for ensuring BNG. BNG supplements rather than replaces or undermines the existing range of protections in planning policy and legislation, for irreplaceable habitats, protected sites and Protected Species, as discussed previously in Chapter 5.

The easiest way to avoid a negative impact on species and habitats and to maximise the gain for biodiversity that can be achieved from a development is to select a site that has low existing ecological value and low strategic potential for habitat creation, buffering or connectivity.

A new Local Plan is currently in development.

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