This article was updated on March 27 with comments from Oliver Lewis.
An online tool to help small developers comply with biodiversity net gain (BNG) laws has launched, ahead of the legislation coming into force for them on Apr. 2.
Joe’s Blooms launched the web app Biodiversity Net Gain Tool to produce the data and legal documents that small developers need to fulfil their BNG obligations, it said Wednesday.
“The BNG Tool is designed to help developers boost biodiversity, and secure planning permission, at a fraction of the [usual] cost – with no need to delay things or spend thousands on expensive external consultants,” said Oliver Lewis, CEO of the company.
At a cost of between £495 and £995 per site, the tool’s web app and mapping tools aims to set it apart from anything else on the market, Lewis told Carbon Pulse. Numerous biodiversity-related tools have launched over the last few years as awareness of nature risks has increased.
The Biodiversity Net Gain Tool will be available to small developers via the UK government-backed private website for submitting planning applications, Planning Portal, who collaborated on the initiative along with trade association the National Federation of Builders, Joe’s Blooms said in a press release.
“Over the last three years, Planning Portal has worked in partnership with Joe’s Blooms to help ensure all applicants have a trusted tool that will allow them to understand and meet their BNG responsibilities,” said Scott Alford, head of business development at Planning Portal.
In February, an executive at consultancy Arup said smaller developers in England could incur unnecessary costs while aligning with BNG, with worse outcomes for nature. Major development projects in England have had to plan to achieve a net biodiversity improvement of at least 10% since February, but the requirements are only coming into force for small sites from next week.
“While many of the larger developers had the capital needed to prepare for BNG, lots of smaller developers have not had the resources or time to do the same,” Lewis said.
Some small- and medium-sized developers have “flagged concerns about preparedness, specifically the need to hire consultants or in-house ecological expertise to draft net gain proposals”, they said.
“Another challenge is that the UK is also facing a skills shortage in ecology services, with developers reporting they’ve found it increasingly difficult to recruit ecologists.”
English authorities received 85,200 applications for planning permission between October and December last year, 9% fewer than the same period the previous year, according to government figures.
Executives from across the nature sector called on the UK government last month to better resource local authorities to help them implement BNG.
Smaller sites do not need an ecologist as they can either use the simpler small sites biodiversity metric tool themselves, or someone familiar with the site can make a calculation, such as a project manager, according to the government.
Joe’s Blooms’ new tool produces “all” the documents needed to submit a planning application, including a completed biodiversity metric and biodiversity gain plan, it said.
The digital initiative identifies what developers need to do to comply with rules over a particular area using purpose-built mapping tools:
Source: Joe’s Blooms
The Biodiversity Net Gain Tool follows Joe’s Blooms launching an Exemption Checker, to help developers determine whether they need to comply with BNG, and an Explore tool, to calculate the the biodiversity potential of a plot of land.
The BNG legislation has been heralded as pioneering, while facing numerous issues over the last year including claims it could incentivise building in nature recovery areas, pose serious risks to ecology, and has fundamental gaps in its market infrastructure.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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