Let’s make BNG a pillar of the UK’s modern infrastructure strategy

RE: DEFRA Consultations Open Letter

As the government drives forward its mission to build 1.5 million homes and renew the UK’s aging infrastructure, it faces a fundamental challenge: how to ensure that growth is resilient, future-proofed, and equitable.

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is a critical part of the answer.

BNG is not a bureaucratic hurdle. It is a market and policy innovation that delivers real-world outcomes: reduced flood risk, improved air and water quality, more stable soils, cooler cities, and better public health. These are not ‘nice to haves’. They are essential conditions for sustainable development, cost control, and community and investor confidence.

Its benefits are not limited to new developments. By restoring natural systems upstream and across urban landscapes, BNG also helps to safeguard the homes and buildings we live and work in against the escalating impacts of climate change.

At Biofarm, we see every day how targeted investment in nature recovery can accelerate planning delivery, unlock hard to develop sites, and enhance long-term asset value. BNG is already making development more responsible. With the right safeguards and policy clarity, it can also make development more viable.

We welcome the government’s intent to streamline BNG for small and medium sites, but simplification must not mean dilution. Weakening core protections risks undermining public trust, market certainty, and the wider goals of nature recovery. Instead, we must focus on delivering BNG more efficiently, with consistent metrics, credible enforcement, and a national network of investable off-site solutions.

If the government wants to build faster, cheaper and fairer, it should invest in nature. Nature is not a constraint on growth. It is a foundation for it.

Let’s make BNG a pillar of the UK’s modern infrastructure strategy.