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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the availability of suitable off-site land for delivering biodiversity net gain in the vicinity of small urban sites.

The recent consultation looked at a range of options to make it quicker, cheaper and easier for these businesses to deliver their BNG obligations, including small urban sites.

The recent consultation also looked at options for increasing flexibility for small developers to purchase off-site units, when BNG is not possible or viable to achieve on-site. Natural England maintains a national register of all off-site BNG land which continues to grow, increasing options and reducing costs for developers.

A Government response to the consultation will be published in due course.

We are also on improving the operation of BNG for local planning authorities and SME housebuilders. We will continue to keep the wider local authority biodiversity administration and ecological requirements on SME housebuilders through the planning system under review.