Defra has published a suite of guidance to support the (delayed) introduction of biodiversity net gain (BNG) becoming mandatory.

They include:

• The statutory biodiversity metric tool and user guide

The tool allows the calculation of biodiversity value for the purpose of BNG for major developments.  The user guide has the information needed to use the statutory biodiversity metric tool.

• Statutory biodiversity metric condition assessments

These provide condition assessment criteria for all relevant metric habitats. This allows a standard approach to collecting and inputting the correct data for habitat condition.

• Small sites statutory biodiversity metric calculation tool and user guide

The small sites biodiversity metric tool allows the calculation of biodiversity value for the purpose of BNG for small sites.  The user guide provides all the information needed to use the small sites biodiversity metric tool.

• Moving from older versions of the biodiversity metric

Guidance on how to copy over from previous versions of the biodiversity metric and the changes since 4.0 will be published in due course.

Find more tools, case studies and technical detail available from Natural England.