Catherine Spitzer, chief executive of Environment Bank, explains how private investment can help local authorities that are struggling to attract the skills needed to tackle the crisis in nature.

A big focus for the Government is bringing together two policy goals that had previously seemed incompatible – building more homes and restoring nature. Fortunately, with the introduction of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) earlier this year, the commitment to delivering 1.5 million homes by the end of the Parliament can also be a big win for protecting habitats and nature restoration.

BNG a world-leading policy that makes sure that habitat for wildlife is in a better state than it was before development, all without burdening the taxpayer. By mandating that property developers invest in measures that increase the amount of plants and wildlife as part of seeking planning permission, England is genuinely world-leading in bringing together ecology and economics to save the natural world.

The intent and ambition of BNG is certainly worth celebrating – tackling the biodiversity challenge is a multi-billion-pound challenge – the Green Finance Institute estimates it could cost up to £9.7bn per year by 2030. These are sums that neither the Government, nor local authorities can front alone. This is why mechanisms to accelerate the flow of private investment are so essential.

But it’s important to challenge ourselves to consider whether the policy is reaching its full potential. One clear challenge that has emerged in the last nine months is whether Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) – who are already stretched and under pressure to deliver more with less – have the capacity to interrogate and process BNG.

There is a huge recruitment crisis for ecologists, which risks exacerbating a skills gap. The numbers are striking: a recent survey showed that 62% of respondents from LPAs felt they did not have sufficient access to ecologist expertise to interrogate BNG claims. In 2022, research by the Association of Local Government Ecologists (ALGE) and Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) found that only 5% of 337 respondents across LPAs in England said their current ecological resource was sufficient to scrutinise all relevant planning applications. Fewer than 10% reported that their current expertise and resources would be adequate to deliver BNG.

Biodiversity conservation is a highly specialised field that requires the involvement of scientists, ecologists, economists, and policy experts. These technical professionals are hard to come by and recruit for local governments, and it would take a long time and significant resource to train up the numbers required to support the housebuilding revolution that is the ambition of the Government.

But without this capacity in the system, the housebuilding revolution will be stalled. If LPAs don’t have the resources to adequately process and validate BNG applications, then houses will not be built and the potential habitat restoration will be on pause.

We know this is an issue, with new data from MHCLG out this month showing that 72% of planning departments indicated that they currently have skills gaps with regards to ecology and biodiversity. Of those planning departments with any skills gaps, 75% said that skills gaps had impacted on their readiness for Biodiversity Net Gain. There must be a longer-term ambition to support LPAs with the capacity to deliver on BNG, but this would do nothing for the immediate challenge faced in terms of recruiting the necessary ecological expertise.

This is where private sector providers can help plug the gaps. Developers that cannot produce the requisite biodiversity onsite need a way to meet legal requirements so that they can break ground swiftly and deliver the homes that are much needed around the country. Habitat Banks, when they are properly interrogated by ecologists to ensure the integrity of the BNG units, are a route to achieving the required BNG uplift offsite.

I have seen for myself how this collaboration can ease the challenges LPA’s face in assessing unit integrity and provide the units required to embark on a sustainable house-building revolution. We need to keep up the momentum. The nature crisis isn’t going away, and without urgent action it’s only going to get worse. Now is the time to reflect on the policy, and reinvigorate collaboration between LPAs, the private sector, and the Government to deliver the long-term benefits to the planet we all need and deserve.