The natural world needs your help.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
The British government in recent years has done some good. This is to force developers to see how much nature they are destroying with their developments and ensure that they leave more in place than was there was in first place.
It is ground breaking, creative and positive. Our current government is considering watering it down and to be fair to them are undergoing a consultation with the public. So this is your chance to have your say.
Just to be clear what is being proposed includes a new threshold of 50 houses ('medium sized') and exempt all those developers from BNG legislation. The cumulative ecological damage across England from this would make the introduction of the BNG legislation almost obsolete.
The consultation is at the link below.
Click here for to view the consulation.
There are 32 pages and you can take a while if you read it all. I took 15 minutes to do it. Most of the questions are about detail and you can read more or simply answer 'do not know'.
if you have little time the important questions are Q11, Q12, Q13, Q14 and Q17. I have provided my answers in case that might help you below.
11
Do you think the BNG requirement should be removed for minor development (for example including up to 9 residential homes)
No
12
Please provide evidence for your response to the previous question here
Biodiversity is crashing around us. 9 homes is still considerable. The loss of biodiversity from the hundreds of sites that will no longer have to do this is going to be harmful to our world and this means this great work will cease to have the positive impact we all hoped for.
13
If minor development were to be exempted from BNG, do you agree that the de minimis threshold should be extended to cover other types of development outside of the minor development category having little or no impact on biodiversity?
No
14
Please elaborate on your answer to the previous question
I/We do not support extending the de minimis threshold beyond the scope
described in our response above. I/We strongly oppose exempting minor
development from Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). BNG must apply to all development
types, including minor developments.
17
Do you agree that development whose sole or primary objective is to conserve or enhance biodiversity should be exempt from BNG?
Yes
***
Please note the deadline for this is 24th July.
All beating hearts will thank you 💚