posted 30th April 2026
The government has recently carried out a consultation on the implementation of BNG and have now published their findings.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/improving-the-implementation-of-biodiversity-net-gain-for-minor-medium-and-brownfield-development/outcome/government-response-and-summary-of-responses
A summary can be found on the CIEEM website and the key changes are:
https://cieem.net/government-confirms-forthcoming-changes-to-biodiversity-net-gain-rules/
• Sites below 0.2ha in size will become exempt from BNG
• The current exemption for self-build and custom build projects will be removed – this makes sense as most of these would continue be exempt under the new 0.2ha rule.
• A new exemption for temporary development of up to five years
• Amending the BNG hierarchy for minor development to make it more flexible to deliver it off-site (rather than maximising on-site BNG first which has proved difficult to implement on small sites)
These changes will be brought forward via secondary legislation before 31 July 2026.
The key change will likely be the new 0.2ha exemption - and so if you have clients with sites below this size, they may want to delay their planning application until after the end of July to avoid BNG.