Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support developers to comply with biodiversity net gain policy for large housing developments when credits (a) are and (b) are not available.

The Government has published extensive guidance on biodiversity net gain (BNG), alongside the statutory biodiversity metric tool, which supports developers in calculating the biodiversity value of their developments.

Defra are also funding the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) to support LPAs administer biodiversity net gain in their areas and support the development of local biodiversity markets. The biodiversity gain sites register operated by Natural England at a national level and allows developers to record off-site gains and evidence that they will achieve BNG.

Where developers are not able to achieve BNG on the development site, or through the purchase of off-site habitat enhancements, the statutory biodiversity credits scheme, also operated by Natural England, is available. The intention is for statutory credits to be a last resort, enabling developers to meet their biodiversity net gain if other options are not possible. Revenue generated from statutory credits will be used to support habitat creation in England.