Housebuilders welcome relaxation of BNG rules on smaller sites

Housebuilders have welcomed the government’s proposal to remove biodiversity net gain (BNG) rules from smaller sites in the face of criticism of the proposed policy from the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) and environmental groups.

Before Christmas, the government announced plans to exempt sites of up to 0.2 ha from the BNG requirements – which tell developers to assess habitats before and after development and increase biodiversity by at least 10%.

The government will consult early this year on the plans alongside a targeted exemption for residential brownfield development on sites of up to 2.5 hectares.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the move to exempt smaller sites “will make the process simpler for SME developers while maintaining nature recovery at scale”.

Reacting to the proposal, a spokesperson for the Home Builders Federation said: “Over recent decades the number of SME house builders has plummeted, mainly as a result of the increasingly complex, bureaucratic and costly planning and regulatory requirements.

“Much more needs to be done to assist SME house builders and support them to play their part in increasing housing supply, but this potential reduction in costs would be welcome.”

This was echoed by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Jeremy Gray, head of external affairs at FMB, said: “The FMB welcomes measures that would make building homes easier for smaller house builders, including whether to exempt smaller developments on sites under 0.2 ha from BNG requirements.

“While the new BNG measure has laudable aims, it can be challenging to deliver on smaller sites and offsite mitigation options remain expensive.”

However the measure has been strongly criticised by groups including industry membership body the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC).

In an open letter to the government last month, UKGBC said BNG is “simple in principal and powerful in practice” as it means developers must leave nature in a measurable better state than before. It said the policy “has been working”.

It added: “Local authorities have invested in skills. Developers have adapted. Consultants, contractors, ecologists and communities have created new local green spaces that reduce flooding, cut overheating risk and boost health and wellbeing.

“Government is therefore at risk of condemning the wrong man by making unevidenced, knee jerk responses which wind back commitments.”

Environmental campaigners have also criticised the move. Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said: “This is happening because from Kier Starmer down, this government seems to be wedded to an outdated, discredited old-world view that the choice before us is one of nature OR housing, even though there are plenty of examples of how you can have both, and even though it’s abundantly clear the British people want both.”

Former Conservative leader and peer William Hague slammed the proposals in a column for the Times last week. He wrote: “They [the government] are consequently doing great damage to an imaginative policy that had all-party support, provided income to farmers who contributed their land and created a market for supporting nature, while still having no chance of hitting their target for new houses.”