Southampton’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.

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

Southampton is part of the Hampshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be foundhere.

Specific BNG Requirements are set out in the BNG Page.

Within Schedule 14 of the Environment Act measures have been included that allow the local planning authority to take account of any habitat degradation or destruction undertaken on a site since January 2020 , and to take the earlier habitat state as the baseline for the purposes of biodiversity net gain. This is to ensure that there is no advantage to be gained by the deliberate clearance of land in order to achieve a low baseline value for biodiversity net gain.

If habitats on site have been destroyed or degraded prior to a survey and submission of planning application, the earlier habitat state will be taken as the baseline for the purposes of the biodiversity metric and a habitat condition score of ‘good’ will be allocated to the habitat parcel as a precaution.

See also the Local Plan.

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