Biodiversity Net Gain: reports government will delay environmental building law - as green policy under fire

The government is reportedly planning to push back yet another green policy, one which would have forced building developers to improve wildlife habitats.

The BBC reports it has been told by a government source that Biodiversity Net Gain, which was meant to become a mandatory part of England's planning system in November, will no longer be introduced this year.

The policy - part of 2021's Environment Act - would have ensured the natural environment around building developments was left in a better state than when construction began. More specifically, the net gain for biodiversity had to be at least 10%.

This comes shortly after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced he was pushing back a number of other green policies, largely those aimed at helping the UK reach its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The softening and rethinking of green policies in recent months is largely thought to be fallout from the Uxbridge by-election, where Labour's narrow loss was attributed to London Mayor Sadiq Khan's locally-unpopular ULEZ expansion.

The UK Green Building Council feared any delay would “hurt green business and development”, while the Wildlife Trusts told the BBC it was “another hammer blow for nature” - and any delay now would "cause uncertainty for developers and could affect the quality of schemes".

In a post on X - formerly known as Twitter - chief executive Craig Bennett wrote: "The [government] has shown itself to be routinely incompetent when it comes to the nuts and bolts of environmental policy delivery.

"Rather than pulling its socks up and fixing delivery, its solution (time and again) is to cancel, weaken or delay," he continued.

Last week, PA reports the Lords Built Environment Committee said the government was “failing to deliver for either side” in its approach to competing demands for new homes and environmental protection.

The cross-party group has called for housebuilding to be given statutory weight which ensures it has equal status to environmental goals.

In its report, it says advice on nutrient neutrality rules, which the upper chamber recently voted to save despite a government bid to relax them, could have “crippling” effects on smaller developers.

The committee said it the success of government policies on both development and habitat protection had been “hampered and sometimes completely blocked by lack of co-ordination in policy-making and haphazard and unbalanced implementation”.

It called for the government to issue "clear advice" for local planning authorities and developers.