GOVERNMENT DELAY CREATES A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY FOR LANDOWNERS AND DEVELOPERS

Government delay creates a window of opportunity for landowners and developers

In October it was announced that the new ruling for developers to provide a bio-diversity net gain of 10% on new development sites has been delayed until January 2024. Introduced by the 2021 Environment Act, the new policy was due to be applicable for new major applications in November 2023.

The current biodiversity rules state that a planning application must demonstrate an increase in biodiversity, however the percentage increase required is not specified. In theory, an increase on 0.1% would be sufficient under the current rules. In its most simple terms, the new ruling will mean that more of the development site will have to be left to nature. This will ultimately affect the value of the site to a developer as less area can be built upon.

In order to demonstrate the potential impact this will have on the landowner, we recently applied the new biodiversity rules to a site in North Yorkshire where we have been granted a planning permission for four detached bungalows. Our scheme already demonstrated a 4% increase in the biodiversity of the site through additional tree, hedge and wildflower planting. When we modelled an increase in this percentage by a further 6%, to the new 10% rule, the impact was staggering! Drainage and access constraints already limited the flexibility of the design of the site. This, combined with the additional biodiversity area required to hit the 10% increase meant that a maximum of 3 bungalows could be built, compared to the original 4. This would impact the value of the land, with planning permission, by around £150,000.

Any landowners who have been asking themselves the question, “Is it the right time to be exploring the development potential of my land?” The answer is quite simply, yes!