Issue - meetings

That Cabinet approves two levels of relief for the existing fees and charges schedule to create two new lower fee levels for monitoring onsite BNG for the remainder of the financial year 2025-26:

Tier 1 - £1,033 (inc. VAT); and

Tier 2 - £1,722 (inc. VAT).

The Biodiversity and Ecology Lead Officer presented a report which informed the Cabinet of issues arising with current approved fees for monitoring onsite Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) in relation to small developments, and which made a recommendation for a temporary relief to cover the interim period before Fees and Charges are set for the 2026-27 financial year.

The report concerned planning applications where if permission were granted, the general Biodiversity Gain Condition would apply. The Condition was discharged by the submission of a Biodiversity Gain Plan which set out how the biodiversity gain objective, a net gain of 10%, would be met. The legislation required that significant onsite habitat enhancement must be subject to a planning condition, Section 106 agreement or conservation covenant that required the habitat to be maintained for at least 30 years after the development was completed. Consequently, there was a need to charge a monitoring fee, and fees were set for 2024/25, and then increased for 2025/26. However, it had become apparent that for small sites of less than 1ha, the fess were disproportionately high. The report therefore recommended relief against the fees and charges for those smaller developments. Two criteria were proposed as detailed in the report.

AGREED      (unanimously) that Cabinet approves two levels of relief for the existing fees and charges schedule to create two new lower fee levels for monitoring onsite BNG for the remainder of the financial year 2025-26:

Tier 1 - £1,033 (inc. VAT); and

Tier 2 - £1,722 (inc. VAT).

Reasons for Decision:

The proposed new fee levels are considered necessary in the light of the experiences with having actual small developments that are subject to mandatory BNG. In line with the Council’s values, it is considered important that the Council responds appropriately to its experiences with small developments that are subject to mandatory BNG.

Options Considered:

Firstly, to take no action, or secondly to address as part of the setting of Fees and Charges for the 2026-27 Financial Year.