Building up best practices for building out BNG: UKREiiF 2024

• The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) advocates for the support and resources necessary for planners to effectively navigate and implement biodiversity net gain (BNG) alongside other planning responsibilities.
• Leveraging technology can provide scalable, cost-effective solutions for environmental assessments, aiding planners in meeting BNG objectives.
• Long-term maintenance and innovative strategies are crucial for the success and sustainability of biodiversity projects.

It’s hardly a secret that the latest biodiversity net gain (BNG) requirements add complexity to the planning system. However, they also present significant opportunities for local planning authorities (LPAs). That was the basis for a recent conversation at UKREiiF 2024 with AiDash and Victoria Hills, Chief Executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). They discussed the implications of BNG for planners and local authorities and laid out some best practices.

“We fundamentally support the principle of biodiversity net gain. When you read some of the statistics in terms of what’s been lost in biodiversity in the UK over the last 50 years, you know that we need to do something about it,” Victoria stated.

Against that backdrop, though, Victoria acknowledged that layering BNG into the planning system alongside other worthwhile initiatives, like affordable housing and fire safety, increases demands on the public and private sectors. With resources stretched thin, Victoria worries that the RTPI’s constituents need more planners, more ecologists, and more funding to make BNG a success.

Navigating the BNG landscape with an evolving map

One of the major challenges facing everyone involved in BNG is the mandate’s rapid implementation. A survey conducted by the RTPI revealed that 81% of planners felt unprepared for BNG due to a lack of guidance and resources. Victoria remarked, “When we found out that biodiversity net gain was coming in quite quickly, we just wondered, ‘Is this going to be another thing that’s going to delay the system?’”

After a series of private discussions with chief planning offers, Victoria’s concerns were validated. The requisite guidance hadn’t been produced, and nobody was quite sure what would be required.

“We went back to Defra [UK’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs] with a shopping list of things that we needed them to do, which included getting the statutory guidance prepared, she said. “[It] also included some new burdens funding.” That funding could prove instrumental in helping both local authorities and the private sector replenish their ranks. LPAs, who’ve lost 25% of their planners over the last seven years, and the private sector remains desperate for ecologists.

Facing funding and human capital shortfalls, it becomes difficult for local authorities to validate the baselines BNG is measured against, particularly for smaller projects that don’t get as much attention. This may cause legal challenges down the road. “The lawyers are going to be quite busy . . . because one way or another, decisions or the ability to discharge them might be challenged on the basis of what was approved,” Victoria warned.

Leveraging technology to streamline BNG implementation

To help its members address these challenges, the RTPI is working hard to secure additional money for capacity and capability, funneling millions of pounds into planning, skills, and delivery. In the meantime, Victoria encouraged the use of advanced technology in planning and monitoring biodiversity net gain.

“It’s great we’re going to bring all those new planning officers in. But they won’t be chartered for a couple of years yet,” she noted. It doesn’t address what the industry is supposed to be right now. Local authorities need to find smarter ways of working — anything, she said, that helps them find out what they already have, so they’re ready when developers come along with questions. The LPAs would know exactly what biodiversity they have in their borough and what sites they can free up for the net gain.

“And they’re only going to do that through digital innovation,” Victoria said.

The idea here is that data, whether it’s taken from high-resolution satellite imagery, aerial imagery, or licensed data layers, can be used to generate a BNG baseline report. That baseline, reconciled with a development plan, makes it easier to compensate for biodiversity losses and achieve 10% BNG.

Planning for long-term biodiversity success

Victoria also commented on the need for smart technology to assist in monitoring biodiversity improvements. In much the same way as the construction industry maintains Building Information Modeling (BIM), so too should BNG employ a collaborative systems approach for monitoring over time.

“The people that are leading the council at the moment . . . they’re not going to be in that local authority in 30 years’ time,” Victoria noted. “And they’re not going to remember what was agreed with who and all the rest of it. So, it’s really got to be very clearly stored — the data — in terms of that baseline of the BNG, but also what was agreed and what’s happening with it.”

Digital tools are a must for helping local authorities keep detailed records of biodiversity baselines and improvements. “In the olden days. that would have been done in paper logbooks. But I think there’s a real opportunity here for plan tech to play a key role in helping local authorities keep tabs on what’s going on in their area,” Victoria added.

Continue your deep dive into biodiversity measurement here, or learn how AiDash makes it easy to measure biodiversity for BNG planning on BNGAI™.