Sandwell’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.

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

Sandwell is part of the West Midlands Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be found here.

Specific BNG Requirements are set out in Policy 1.2.1 of the BNG Strategy (drafted September 2023).

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is an approach aimed at embedding biodiversity within new development to leave it in a measurably better state than before. Whilst legislation protects certain habitats and species, there are limited mechanisms to maintain, enhance and create wildlife outside these protections. BNG enhances the current system of protection for habitats and species which fall outside the current legislative framework for the protection of wildlife. Importantly BNG follows the mitigation hierarchy (Table 1.1), which aims firstly to avoid and then minimise loss as far as possible, before considering restoration of degraded biodiversity and, as a resort, creating biodiversity in a new location (known as offsetting). BNG also aims to achieve measurable net gains that contribute towards local and strategic biodiversity priorities6 (see Figure 1.3) and requires a long-term commitment to monitoring to ensure its success.

Specific Strategic Significance Requirements are set out in the BNG Strategy (drafted September 2023).

Strategic significance is the local significance of the habitat based on its location and habitat type. Assessors should assign a strategic significance category for each individual habitat parcel both at baseline and at postintervention. The Birmingham and Back Country Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRN) is a relevant strategy in this context.