Summary
On this page you need to set out whether or not there has been any degradation of your site since 30 January 2020. This is a legal requirement.
What is habitat degradation?
Habitat degradation is when the value of a habitat is lowered without planning permission. For example, if you destroy trees, destroy vegetation, pull down natural features etc that were there on 30 January 2020 without planning permission.
For Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), you have to say if habitat degradation (without planning permission) has taken place between 30 January 2020 and the relevant date.
The relevant date is either:
The date of the application, in a case in which planning permission is granted on application.
The date on which the planning permission is granted.
What do I do if the habitat has been degraded but I had planning permission?
If the habitat condition has changed as a result of a planning permission allowing it to change, or because of Government-approved action you should select No, my site hasn't degraded Since 30th January 2020.
What do I do if the habitat has been degraded without planning permission?
If you are aware that your site has been degraded, you will need records of what the site was previously like (including, ideally, a site plan). You will have to fill in the remainder of your metric stating how the site looked before the degradation took place (e.g. if high-quality meadows were destroyed along a stretch of road and this is now modified grassland, you should enter in the meadows rather than modified grassland, and present evidence for why). In other words, you need to enter in the habitat parcels that were there immediately prior to the degradation taking place.
When this happens, you set the relevant date as the date immediately before the habitat degradation took place.
What is a Habitat Parcel?
A habitat parcel is a single, continuous piece of land within your site which clearly is part of a single piece of habitat with the same condition.
If activities to implement, or in connection with, a planning permission are carried out after 25 August 2023 that lower the biodiversity value of the onsite habitat, the pre-development biodiversity value of the onsite habitat is taken to be the biodiversity value immediately before the carrying out of these activities. The relevant date should therefore be set as a date immediately before these activities.
Where degradation activities have taken place (as listed above) before the submission of the application or an earlier proposed date, the applicant must provide:
a statement setting out that these degradation activities have been carried out;
confirmation of the date immediately before these activities were carried out;
the pre-development biodiversity value of the site on this date;
the completed metric calculation tool showing the calculations, and
any available supporting evidence of this.
How can I find out if my site's habitat has degraded since 30 January 2020?
For many small site applications, it is expected that this will not be a major barrier.
Historic satellite imagery of the site can be found on Google Earth. While low quality, it can act as a simple reference to show that your habitat hasn't Simply type in your site's postcode in the Search Google Earth and then
Click View
Click Layers
Click to activate Timelapse. You will see different years go past. Adjust your screen to get your bearings, and you can pause at any point with the pause tool in the top right-hand side.
You may wish to search the Register of Planning Decisions to see if any habitat degradation in your site was the result of approved action.
If there has been degradation and there is insufficient evidence about the biodiversity value of the onsite habitat immediately before the degradation, the pre-development biodiversity value of the onsite habitat must be taken to be the highest biodiversity value of the habitat which is reasonably supported by any available evidence relating to it.
What do I do if I can't find evidence for what the habitats used to be?
You should engage with the Local Planning Authority (LPA) to work out the best approach. You may need to get permission from the LPA to use the degraded habitats as the baseline. If this does happen you will need a reference number for this decision.