The first full year of mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is drawing to a close, and despite what some headlines have claimed, it has been positive and productive. Like any new process introduced at scale, BNG required testing in the real world, and this has helped expose areas for revision alongside numerous successes.
Too often, BNG is portrayed as a problem for development; another obstacle in a planning system under pressure. This narrative not only misses the point, but risks undermining a policy already delivering real benefits for nature, people and places.
This week, the government announced changes to mandatory BNG. These policies are far more positive than those which were rumoured, with the commitment to commence BNG for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) particularly encouraging.
Therefore, as we look ahead to 2026, we have a real opportunity to support the most significant piece of UK environmental legislation of our generation.
This year has shown us that the mechanism of BNG works, and that with the right support, its impact will only grow.
Where the System Is Working
One of the most significant achievements of BNG to date has been the creation of a functioning nature market. For the first time, biodiversity gains have been given a clear commercial value, enabling developers, landowners and ecologists to speak the same language. Crucially, this has provided a mechanism by which private investment can flow directly into nature’s recovery.
The rise of habitat banks has been central to this success. Arising across the UK, these schemes are facilitating landscape-scale restoration, improving connectivity and delivering biodiversity uplift in a way that fragmented on-site interventions cannot. A key success from 2025, this demonstrates that BNG has already begun to fund habitat creation and management at scale.
Local planning authorities have also made notable progress this year. While approaches across the country still vary, most LPAs now have biodiversity officers in place, clearer guidance for applicants and legal agreement templates that support delivery. Importantly, BNG is now firmly embedded in the planning system, and industry attitudes have shifted from scepticism towards general acceptance.
Where Delivery Falls Short
That said, 2025 has also highlighted areas where our approach to BNG requires further refinement.
A key issue has emerged in the post-planning, pre-commencement phase. While 2025 has seen pre-application processes running more smoothly, delays are now arising after planning consent is granted. Securing legal agreements, such as Section 106, has proved challenging, and in some cases, the habitats approved at planning have been difficult to deliver in practice. As a result, Habitat Management and Monitoring Plans are being requested much earlier, highlighting the need to consider the practicalities of BNG implementation from the outset.
Alongside these implementation challenges, key issues have been identified with the biodiversity metric itself. Namely, BNG on small sites. The current metric fails to account for ecological functionality, distorts habitat value, and makes small-scale developments disproportionately expensive to deliver. It will be interesting to see whether the Small Site Metric will be abolished, given the expansion of the de minims exemptions.
Finally, variation across LPAs remains one of the biggest challenges for the industry, creating inconsistency, uncertainty, and potential unfairness for developers, while also leading to uneven environmental outcomes. A cohesive, joined-up approach will become even more critical in 2026, when BNG is applied to NSIPs, and coordination across multiple LPAs - and central government itself - becomes non-negotiable.
Turning BNG into a Strategic Advantage
The last year has shown that BNG is not a barrier to development, but a tool that can fund nature’s recovery, improve the quality of the places we build, support our mental health through increased contact with nature, and create long-term value for landowners and developers.
If 2025 was about testing the system, then 2026 must be about using it more effectively.
BNG is still evolving, and refinement is to be expected. That said, the government must not undermine the integrity of this central mechanism for nature’s recovery and meet its legally binding target to halt Biodiversity Loss by 2030.
With the right support, BNG can move from being seen as a regulatory challenge to being recognised as an opportunity to create places where people and nature thrive.