Agenda item

Since the Committee’s meeting on 21^st September 2023, the Government had announced a revised timetable for the introduction of mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (mBNG) as follows:

·           Regulations / Guidance by the end of November (still awaited at the time of the meeting)

·           January 2024 for major development

·           April 2024 for small sites

·           2025 for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects

A report was considered which updated the Committee about mBNG work being undertaken by officers, including a corporate implementation plan to ensure compliance. The report commented on the merits of:

·           undertaking a habitat bank feasibility study on Council owned land

·           establishing an evidence base of current baseline habitats to:

Ø  help enforce the anti-degradation provisions of the Environment Act 2021, which enabled the biodiversity value of application sites to be backdated to January 2020 (a mapping project facilitated by volunteers from Parish Councils was proposed)

Ø  support potential policies requiring BNG levels in excess of the mandatory 10%.

The report advised that consultants had been engaged to help address the viability of a 10%+ BNG requirement on sites throughout the District. Reference was made to research which confirmed that at least two Local Planning Authorities had already adopted provisions with a 20% requirement with ten others intending to do likewise, and a further LPA seeking 30%.  This was in the context of a previous Government BNG consultation paper which stated that:

“We maintain the view that 10% strikes the right balance between the Government’s ambition for development and the pressing need to reverse environmental decline. The 10% will be a mandatory requirement but should not be viewed as a cap on the aspirations of developers that want to voluntarily go further or do so in the course of designing proposals to meet other local planning policies … ‘It remains the Government’s intention to continue to allow higher percentage targets to be set by planning authorities at a local or site level. Any higher target should be made clear at an early stage … and careful consideration should be given to the feasibility and achievability of any requirements above 10%, which can have significant impacts on the costs of developing a site."

Given the absence of government guidelines, it had not been possible to model likely

staff cost charging schedules for BNG related work. It was confirmed that the anticipated guidelines would help inform the 10%+ BNG costings to be presented to a future meeting. Such costings would include the estimated expenditure required for periodic monitoring of development sites as well as that needed for the initial one-off implementation of mBNG. Other matters discussed during the debate included:

·           the merits of liaising with the other three East Surrey Districts / Boroughs regarding a potential strategic partnership approach to mBNG

·           confirmation that the protections afforded to Ancient Woodland and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) would continue to apply

·           Surrey County Council, supported by TDC, was in the process of developing a Local Nature Recovery Network (as mandated by the Environment Act) which sought to join up SSSIs and land in between with a view to accommodating ‘biodiversity offsetting sites’.

The Committee also wished to record its appreciation of the recruitment of a Principal Ecologist (Tim Elton).  

            R E S O L V E D – that:

A.      a further update report on the preparedness of the Local Planning Authority to deal with the introduction of mBNG be brought back to this Committee on 18^th January 2024;

B.    the Chief Planning Officer also be requested to bring a report back to this Committee on 18^th January 2024 setting out recommendations on whether or not the Council should seek to exceed the 10% mBNG requirement in Tandridge; and 

C.    the feasibility, timing and cost of undertaking a District wide baseline habitat assessment and habitat bank study be investigated and a further report brought back to the Committee on 21^stMarch 2024.