Statutory biodiversity metric tools and guides
Tools and guides for measuring the biodiversity value of habitat for biodiversity net gain (BNG).
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The tools and guides on this page explain what will apply when when biodiversity net gain (BNG becomes) becomes mandatory. Guidance will continue to be updated.
The statutory biodiversity metric tool and user guide
The tool allows the calculation of biodiversity value for the purpose of BNG for major developments. The user guide has the information needed to use the statutory biodiversity metric tool.
Statutory biodiversity metric condition assessments
These provide condition assessment criteria for all relevant metric habitats. This allows a standard approach to collecting and inputting the correct data for habitat condition.
Small sites statutory biodiversity metric calculation tool and user guide
The small sites biodiversity metric tool allows the calculation of biodiversity value for the purpose of BNG for small sites. The user guide provides all the information needed to use the small sites biodiversity metric tool.
Moving from older versions of the biodiversity metric
Guidance on how to copy over from previous versions of the biodiversity metric and the changes since 4.0 will be published in due course.
Find more tools, case studies and technical detail available from Natural England.
Last updated 15 December 2023 + show all updates
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Amended the statutory biodiversity metric calculation tool to fix an error in the irreplaceable habitats dropdown and minor changes to the working of the tool such as ensuring the rows auto populate correctly and cells adjust their height so error messages can be read.
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First published.
Update history
2024-08-06 13:07
Updated to confirm that you can use any version, including previously published versions, of the statutory metric tools for BNG calculations.
2024-07-24 15:08
Replaced the incorrect small sites metric calculation tool with a corrected version.
2024-07-23 10:00
Minor updates within the metric tools and user guides. A summary of the changes is outlined in the version history at the start of each document.
2024-02-12 12:33
Updated box at top of page to state that biodiversity net gain (BNG) is mandatory from 12 February 2024 and removed the ‘draft guidance’ label. Added information on transferring data from 4.0 to the statutory biodiversity metric.Updated user guides to provide further detail and clarifications, including the assessment of strategic significance and when to record individual trees. Updated calculation tools to correct some labelling errors, minor formula errors and expand width of columns. Updated condition assessments to remove redundant references, reflect the inclusion of sea buckthorn as an invasive coastal species and align the assessment of individual trees to the clarified approach in the user guide.
2023-12-15 14:38
Amended the statutory biodiversity metric calculation tool to fix an error in the irreplaceable habitats dropdown and minor changes to the working of the tool such as ensuring the rows auto populate correctly and cells adjust their height so error messages can be read.
2023-11-29 14:27
First published.