Your BNG journey as a Land Manager
BNG legislation is creating opportunities for land managers to establish and improve habitats across England, enabling them to sell off-site biodiversity units to developers looking to meet their BNG needs. This represents an exciting new revenue stream for land managers and ensures that habitats created for the purposes of BNG remain pristine and protected for 30 years and longer.
Habitats established or improved after 30 January 2020 will qualify for registration and subsequent sale of the corresponding biodiversity units.
Biounit trader is uniquely positioned to showcase your biodiversity units. Using our simple on-line tools and filtering techniques, your units will be seen by the majority of developers looking for off-site gain and best of all, listing your biodiversity units on biounit trader is free!
Biounit trader accepts the following type of land managers to advertise biodiversity units for sale on the platform:
- landowners
- farmers
- estate owners
- habitat bank operators, facilities, property or estate managers
- land agents
- land advisors
- planning authorities using land they own
- developers using land they own
A series of steps must followed by the land manager to ensure that BNG rules are followed. Once you have understood the principles of BNG, start your journey here with the help of biounit trader.
Step 1: Calculate biodiversity
Assessing the biodiversity of your site is key to successfully calculating the number and type of biodiversity units you can sell. The steps involved are complex and require the help of a qualified ecologist. Use the ‘I need an egologist’ section to find a suitable ecologist in your area.
The biodiversity metric is a tool used to calculate the diversity of a site and measures habitats including grasslands, hedgerows, lakes, woodland and water courses such as rivers and streams. It also takes into account size, condition, strategic significance and area type of the site.
Step 2: preparation of biodiversity units
Before proceeding with habitat enhancement for sale under BNG, it's essential to engage a certified ecologist who will conduct a survey to assess the biodiversity of your current habitat. This involves utilizing the biodiversity metric, for which there are established guidelines. Seek advice from professionals such as ecologists to explore options for enhancing the value of habitats on your site and to determine the potential number of units that could be sold. Use or on-line tool to search for an ecologist near you.
Unit type and habitat types
Before proceeding with habitat enhancement for sale under BNG, it's essential to engage a certified ecologist who will conduct a survey to assess the biodiversity of your current habitat. This involves utilising the biodiversity metric, for which there are established guidelines. Seek advice from professionals to explore options for enhancing the value of habitats on your site and to determine the potential number of units that could be sold. Use or on-line tool to search for an ecologist near you.
By focusing on creating, enhancing, or restoring specific habitats strategically situated for your location, you can potentially increase the number of units per hectare. Your area's local nature recovery strategy will identify these strategic habitats. In cases where the strategy hasn't been published, you can refer to the draft strategy or another recommendation from your Local Planning Authority.
Biounit trader can put you in touch with potential sellers with requirements for off-site biodiversity units of a specific type. You could then create and enhance your habitats to meet the BNG requirements of a specific development or alternatively create and enhance your habitats that are appropriate to your site conditions and locally in demand, before matching with a development.
Unit price
Ensuring your unit pricing adequately covers all associated costs for a minimum of 30 years is crucial to fulfil the obligations outlined in your BNG legal agreement. You can use the pricing of other land managers selling on biounit trader as a guide, however, it's essential to recognise that pricing may vary depending on location and project type. Therefore, your pricing structure should be tailored to reflect your specific costs for delivering the units.
When establishing a price for your units, you should consider the following costs:
- Initial habitat creation and enhancement
- Land management for a minimum of 30 years
- Monitoring and reporting activities
- Fees for ecologists or other experts
- Insurance coverage
- Remedial work to address any habitat management issues
- Procurement of machinery, tools, and staffing for task execution
- Consideration for inflation
Price your units based on the cost on the expenses associated with habitat enhancement rather than the number of units the habitats will generate. The value of habitat enhancement may vary between developers. While the land manager's price remains fixed, the price per unit may fluctuate based on the distance to the development site.
Legal agreement
Prior to registering your gain site, it's important to establish a legal agreement with your local planning authority outlining the habitat works you are committing to and the desired outcomes. This agreement must ensure habitat enhancement and maintenance for a minimum of 30 years. It is also essential to prepare a Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan with the assistance of your ecologist and obtain approval from your local planning authority.
Step 3: Selling biodiversity units
Biounit trader is the ideal platform to advertise your biodiversity units for sale to developers looking for off-site BNG gains. You may want to seek legal advice on making the sale once you have made contact with the developer. Biounit trader makes this process easier to manage in your private area called ‘My biounit’ where you will see all correspondence to and from developers. You personal details remain private if you stay within the biounit platform. Once you have determined that the enquiry is progressing you can then make contact directly with the buyer.
During the sale process, a contract of sale will be required. We advise to include the following considerations:
- Specify the number and type of units to be registered and allocated to a development.
- Outline your commitment to accurately record the allocation of units.
- Agree upon prices and payment terms between you and the buyer.
- Acknowledge that the developer may prefer not to complete the sale of units until they have confidence in the approval of their biodiversity gain plan.
- Determine payment arrangements, Lump sum, Staged, Based on achieved results, final settlement.
Ensure each of these terms are agreed upon before proceeding to registration and transfer.
Step 4: Registration and allocation
It is mandatory to register your land as a biodiversity gain site on the National Biodiversity Gain Sites Register, which is managed by Natural England.
The National Biodiversity Gain Sites Register serves to catalogue sites that are contributing biodiversity units and facilitating developments in meeting their BNG requirements. Its objectives include illustrating the manner and locations in which developments are enhancing biodiversity off-site. Furthermore, it functions to prevent double counting, ensuring that the same units are not assigned to multiple developments. Gains from registered sites may be allocated to specific development projects to aid them in achieving their biodiversity gain targets.
Selling biodiversity units on biounit trader that have been registered with Natural England and allocated a unique reference will be favoured by developers looking to immediately allocate off-site units as part of their planning process. You more likely to receive a rapid sale and favourable price per unit once the site is registered.
Once a sale has been agreed upon and legal contracts arranged, either you or the developer must apply to record the allocation of off-site biodiversity gains to a development. This step is crucial for the approval of a developer's biodiversity gain plan, as the Local Planning Authority requires evidence that the land has been allocated to the development. Therefore, recording the allocation on the register is necessary to provide this evidence and move forward with the approval process.
Step 5: Habitat management
As stipulated in your legal agreement and habitat management plan, off-site units must undergo maintenance for a minimum of 30 years subsequent to the completion of habitat enhancement activities. If habitat creation, enhancement, and management have not commenced at the time of off-site unit allocation, it must begin within 12 months of the allocation.