New Forest National Park Authority’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.

New Forest National Park Authority’s pre-application advice service can be foundhere.

New Forest National Park Authority is part of the Hampshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Information can be found here.

Specific BNG Requirements are set out in Policy SP6 of the Local Plan (adopted August 2019).

Development proposals which adversely affect locally designated sites, priority habitats and species populations, protected species or those identified of importance by national or local biodiversity plans will be refused unless the Authority is satisfied that: a) it has been demonstrated that suitable measures for mitigating adverse effects will be provided and maintained in order to achieve a net gain in biodiversity value b) there are no alternative solutions c) there are overriding reasons which outweigh the harm. In cases where it is not possible to fully avoid or mitigate for the loss of biodiversity interests resulting from a development, appropriate compensation will be secured for any residual losses via on or off-site compensation measures. The latter may include the provision of compensatory habitats elsewhere. In addition, opportunities to enhance ecological or geological assets and the water environment should be maximised, particularly in line with the Authority’s ‘Action for Biodiversity’ . Applicants will be required to demonstrate the impacts of their proposal on biodiversity, and for certain types of development13 by submission of an Ecological Appraisal, which should outline the mitigation and enhancement measures needed to achieve a net gain in biodiversity.

See also the Drafted Joint Core Strategy.

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