This new law as part of the government’s Environment Act will make sure wildlife habitats are left in a better state than before development, and in doing so make a significant contribution to nature’s recovery.

The Biodiversity Gain Site Register will provide a publicly accessible source of information about off-site gains across England.

The register is one part of the BNG service which went live when BNG became mandatory.

The Gain Site Register enables landowners to participate in off-site BNG to apply to register their site, developers to view unallocated off-site habitat enhancements, and local planning authorities to view allocated and unallocated habitat enhancements as part of their checks on a submitted gain plan.

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Others using the register will include ecologists, non-governmental organisations, and the public.

Landowners or developers (with landowner permission) can also apply to record an allocation of habitat enhancements to their development.

Developers can calculate the cost of statutory credits ahead of purchasing them using the statutory biodiversity credits estimator.

Additionally, they can apply to purchase statutory credits, which will become a digital service in the spring of 2024.

The statutory biodiversity metric calculation tool uses a habitat-based approach to assess an area’s value to wildlife and uses habitat features to calculate a biodiversity value, which will assist ecologists, developers, planning authorities and landowners in planning applications.