Planning Permission: Biodiversity
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of planning applications her Department expects to remain subject to the biodiversity gain condition once the 0.2 hectare, temporary permission and proposed brownfield residential exemptions are in force, in the context of her Department's estimate that the first and third of these alone would exempt between 63 and 78 per cent of eligible applications.
Answered by Mary Creagh
Defra have published an impact assessment alongside regulations, implementing changes to biodiversity net gain for smaller developments. This shows around 80% of planning applications are already exempt from BNG under existing exemptions, such as for householder development, which are having little of no impact on biodiversity. We expect that the new exemption for sites of 0.2 hectares or less will exempt around an additional 51% of residential planning applications that are currently eligible for biodiversity net gain.
The consultation on a potential additional targeted exemption for residential brownfield development closed on 10 June 2026. All responses and evidence submissions are being analysed and the Government will respond to the consultation in due course.
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