Surrey Heath’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.

Surrey Heath’s pre-application advice service can be found here.

Surrey Heath is part of the Surrey Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be found here.

Specific BNG requirements are set out in Policy 2 of the BNG Requirements (adopted 2024).

All planning projects subject to BNG should consider biodiversity from the outset. As a minimum at very early in the site design stage, and ideally/in the future, at site selection stage. This will help deliver a high quality development scheme and minimise the need for providing replacement habitats. BNG is based on the calculation of biodiversity value using a standardised methodology of the biodiversity metric. The biodiversity metric must be completed by a competent person. Applicants are advised to take advise from a suitably qualified and experienced ecologist.

A new Local Plan is currently being developed.

Specific Strategic requirements are set out in Policy 6 of the BNG Requirements (adopted 2024).

A Strategic Significance score of High, Medium or Low must be assigned to each habitat line in the Biodiversity metric, for pre and post-development habitats. From 2025 onwards, the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) for Surrey will set out which locations and habitats the strategic significance scoring applies to. In the meantime, existing local biodiversity policies should be used. However, the Council is concerned that - as currently worded – the advised method for the application of ‘High’ strategy in the Biodiversity metric guidance, is not fit for purpose in relation to existing local biodiversity policies.