6. Clearing Sites in Advance (deliberate degradation)
Within Schedule 14 of the Environment Act, measures have been included allowing EDDC to take note of any habitat degradation or deliberate destruction undertaken on a site since 30th January 2020, and to take the earlier habitat state as the baseline for the purposes of biodiversity net gain.
In 2023, the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, introduced additional wording further tightening of the law regarding degradation. This wording stated that any authorised activity, in accordance with a planning permission, that is carried out on onsite habitats, on or after 25th August 2023, then the pre-development biodiversity value of that habitat is taken to be its biodiversity value.
Where it appears that habitats have been deliberately managed to reduce their biodiversity value prior to an ecological survey to inform a planning submission, such as pre-emptive habitat clearance, a precautionary assessment of their pre-emptive value will be undertaken. This would be informed by aerial images, photographs, or other evidence that may be used to evidence the habitat types formerly present. In the absence of any information to the contrary, habitat should be allocated a condition score of ‘good’.
This is to ensure that there is no advantage to be gained by the deliberate clearance of land to achieve a low pre-development value for biodiversity net gain.