Bath and North East Somerset LPA BNG

Bath and North East Somerset has been a unitary authority since 1996, formed from the former Bath and Wansdyke districts, and covers about 136 square miles from the edge of Bristol to the Wiltshire border, with two-thirds of it Green Belt. The River Avon runs through Bath, and the River Chew, which supports migratory Atlantic salmon, sea trout and eels, was dammed in the 1950s to form Chew Valley Lake, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Protection Area where up to 4,000 ducks of twelve species winter. Parts of the Cotswolds and the Mendip Hills, both national landscapes, fall inside the district. Disused limestone mines at Combe Down, Bathampton Down and Brown’s Folly near Bath are hibernation sites in the Bath and Bradford on Avon Bats Special Area of Conservation.

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Biodiversity Net Gain became a legal requirement for major developments in England on 12 February 2024, and for small sites on 2 April 2024. Bath and North East Somerset was ahead of that: Policy NE3a of its Local Plan Partial Update, adopted on 19 January 2023, already required major developments to secure at least 10% gain for 30 years, and minor developments to show no net loss and an appropriate net gain. The council works from an interim BNG guidance note, which says a full SPD will follow once secondary legislation is in place, but its March 2026 Local Development Scheme lists no BNG SPD and points instead to the guidance note and the amended Planning Obligations SPD. A 20% option for major developments was put to consultation in the Local Plan options stage; it has not been adopted.

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Land is the practical limit. The council says it does not own much land, so rather than run a habitat bank it has opened a call for nature sites to connect landowners with partners and funders. Its guidance also lists SAC bat habitat, including juvenile sustenance zones, among the irreplaceable habitats that development is expected to protect and enhance. The council’s BNG pages do not mention statutory credits.