14 COMMENT
Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders
WILL THE GOVERNMENT’S BIODIVERSITY MEASURES BE A NET GAIN OR LOSS FOR HOUSEBUILDERS?
Brian Berry of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) discusses the Government’s recently announced plans to support biodiversity growth through housebuilders, and how these should be configured so as not to hinder SME builders
HAVING AN ARBITRARY TARGET OF 110 PER CENT TO ACHIEVE COULD SERIOUSLY HAMPER THE SMALLEST OF BUILDERS
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surpasses, climate change. Tackling this, quite rightly, is a key priority for the Government, and it set out a 25-year environmental plan, with ambitious targets to tackle this, last year. The Government has identified the planning system as a way of increasing biodiversity and is seeking to introduce a principle of ‘net environmental gain’ for new development. It is critical, however, that this is done in a way that doesn’t negatively impact upon housing delivery, particularly for smaller scale housebuilders, which will struggle to absorb any extra costs or delays.
T
Proposals that were confirmed by the Chancellor in the 2019 Spring Statement would mean that any new housing development in England would have to demonstrate a 110 per cent ‘net gain’ in biodiversity. This would mean that housebuilders would not only have to mitigate for any biodiversity lost (such a hedgerows), but also increase biodiversity by 10 per cent. This can either be achieved onsite, off- setting offsite or through paying a tariff (likely through Section 106). The tariff would be set at a high rate to incentivise housebuilders simply paying the tariff to avoid the first two measures. The net gain or loss of biodiversity would be measured by the ‘Defra metric,’ which enables ecologists to calculate any losses or gains by assessing a habitat’s distinctiveness (where it is
he global loss of large numbers of different species of plants and animals is now said to be a crisis that equals, if not
high, medium, or low-value to wildlife), condition (whether it is a good example of its type), and the extent the habitat occupies. If the planned changes receive a 10 per cent higher Defra score than the previous score, then it would have achieved the necessary ‘net gain’. We know that FMB members are already doing their bit to try to maintain and increase biodiversity – for example by putting in bird boxes, lifting fences so hedgehogs can crawl underneath, or building in bat bricks. Having an arbitrary target of 110 per cent to achieve, which will require expensive surveys and consultancy to achieve, could seriously hamper the smallest of housebuilders, just as they are starting to grow
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