Biodiversity Net Gain

What is Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)?­­

Developers in England are legally required to deliver at least 10% “Biodiversity Net Gain” (BNG) on new housing, industrial or commercial developments and small sites. This means that each development must leave nature in a better state than it was found by creating or improving wildlife habitats and maintaining them for 30 years. This should be delivered on-site within developments where possible, but if it isn't developers can "offset" their BNG by paying nearby landowners to deliver habitat creation and enhancement works on their land instead.

Services for developers

We offer a suite of end-to-end services for developers to enable you to deliver on-site or off-site BNG solutions to achieve regulatory compliance. This includes:

• UKHab surveys to establish the biodiversity baseline of your development using the Statutory Defra Metric.
• Designing cost-effective on-site biodiversity enhancements that can also deliver wider ecosystem services and help you fulfil your Nutrient Neutrality requirements. We design and evaluate Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) that improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, and provide attractive greenspace for residents.
• Creating detailed, fully costed, and easy to interpret habitat management and monitoring plans for all on-site habitats.
• If offsite units are required, we can identify a local offsetting solution and broker sales agreements with landowners. Our BNG portal contains dozens of BNG offset sites across Kent and East Sussex designed according to Kent Wildlife Trust conservation principles.
• Helping to prepare paperwork required by the local planning authority to ensure full legal compliance.
• Ensuring 30-year maintenance of BNG by supporting delivery of section 106 agreement obligations, acting as a “responsible body” in a conservation covenant.

Get in touch today to arrange a free consultation. You can fill out the form at the bottom of this page, email bngenquiries@adonisblue.org.uk, or call us during business hours at 01622 357 821. 

Services for farmers and land managers

If you are a landowner and interested in delivering BNG offsets on your land, we can help you understand your potential income with a low-cost desktop feasibility assessment. If you want to move forward, we can work with you to develop your BNG project, and help to sell your units to local developers. Our services for land managers include (but are not limited to):

• Desktop feasibility assessment to understand your land's Natural Capital potential. This includes BNG, carbon, Nutrient Neutrality, and wider ecosystem services.
• Carry out UKHab surveys of your landholdings to establish a biodiversity baseline
• Design habitat proposals that deliver landscape-scale conservation priorities while maximising your potential income from BNG, carbon, and/or Nutrient Neutrality.
• Developing detailed, fully costed, and easy to interpret 30-year habitat management and monitoring plans, and supporting their implementation if required.
• Advertising your BNG units on our exclusive high-integrity BNG portal.
• Brokering sales agreements with suitable developers.

Services for Local Planning Authorities and strategic bodies

We work with local authorities and other strategic bodies that operate on a landscape scale to develop Natural Capital strategies. We can:

• Carry out opportunity mapping to determine priority areas to target for nature restoration, with consideration for biodiversity, accessible greenspace, species recovery, air quality, pollution, and more.
• Create digital resources such as interactive web maps to display outputs.
• Provide consultation for Local Plan development to advise on how BNG regulations can be implemented effectively at a local scale to deliver wider aims and act as a mechanism to deliver important Green Infrastructure.
• Deliver bespoke training for Planning Officers on how to interpret and implement BNG in the planning process.
• Carry out feasibility assessments of Council landholdings to determine BNG, carbon, and Nutrient Neutrality potential. (see services for landowners above for more details)

Our Principles

With a 20+ year track record of designing and delivering biodiversity enhancements for clients across Kent, our BNG solutions can be trusted to reliably deliver significant long-term biodiversity uplift which never cuts corners and maximises your land's potential to deliver for nature. Our BNG offsetting solutions are underpinned by Kent Wildlife Trust Group's high integrity principles, ensuring that maximum benefits are delivered for nature and protected in the long term.

The right habitat in the right place. We choose the most appropriate habitat interventions to ensure our BNG offsetting solutions strategically support local nature recovery priorities and contribute to wider landscape-level conservation goals. This approach integrates the latest environmental research and is aligned with the conservation vision of the Kent Nature Partnership, which calls for a bigger, better and more joined up network of natural spaces across the county.

Maximising benefits for nature. Our BNG solutions go above and beyond to deliver 20% minimum uplift, and we avoid offsetting for irreplaceable or high distinctiveness habitats, or those important for local species populations. Where possible, we aim to create offset solutions that have recognisable wildlife value, with potential to become designated Local Wildlife Sites.

Sustainability. Our habitat management plans are developed with climate resilience in mind, and we consider how sites can deliver wider benefits to communities, such as reduced flood risk, air pollution barriers, and recreational opportunities.

Delivering a bespoke service. We consider the local nuances of each project and tailor our service to match each development with the best offset solution. BTF’s knowledge of rural land ownership in Kent and the Southeast is second to none, while our work with farmer clusters gives us a strong understanding of land management across the farmed landscape.

To find out more, or to sign up to our register of offset buyers and sellers, get in touch via the enquiry form below.

BNG units available to purchase

Explore our catalogue of currently available BNG offset units in Kent and beyond.