New Forest National Park LPA BNG

The New Forest National Park covers about 566 square kilometres of south-west Hampshire and south-east Wiltshire, and its Local Plan says 56% of it is designated of international value for nature conservation. The habitats include lowland heathland, valley mires, ancient and ornamental woodland and coastal marshes, and the Park carries Special Protection Area, Special Area of Conservation and Ramsar designations. Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Ashurst and Sway are its four defined villages. Lymington is not in the Park, although the Lymington and Pennington Marshes, Pennington Common and Buckland Rings, about 7 square kilometres of Lymington and Pennington parish, are.

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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. The National Park Authority is a planning authority in its own right for the whole Park, covering development management, enforcement, minerals and waste, and planning policy, so applications there are not decided by New Forest District Council or Test Valley Borough Council. Its adopted Local Plan 2016-2036 (August 2019) requires net gain through policy SP6, and the Authority applies the 10% statutory minimum without writing BNG guidance of its own. A Local Plan review is under way, with a draft biodiversity net gain policy (SP13) in the July 2026 proposed submission draft.

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Off-site delivery is still being worked out. The Authority has been reviewing options for off-site units within and near the Park with landowners, and its stated position is that on-site gains come first, with off-site habitat a last resort. Nutrient neutrality also applies: the east and south of the Park, including its defined villages, drain to the Solent, while the west, including Burley and the western escarpment villages, is in the Hampshire Avon catchment, where phosphate neutrality has applied since Natural England’s March 2022 advice.