Nicky Britton-Williams

Alongside my role as the Planning and Policy Manager at Kent Wildlife Trust I am lucky enough to be seconded to Kent County Council on a part time basis as the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Officer for Kent and Medway. From February 2024, Biodiversity Net Gain requires that new developments leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was before the development.

Biodiversity Net Gain presents the best tool in the planning system to ensure that this sector is working to tackle the biodiversity emergency, and I am fortunate to be able to dedicate my time to developing tools and resources to ensure that it is delivered to a high standard across Kent and Medway. 

In my view, the most exciting of these tools is the Kent BNG Site Register, which has been funded by Kent and Medway's Local Planning Authorities to provide a centralised list of sites that are available for the delivery of off-site BNG. Whilst I cannot take any credit for the concept of register nor its technical development (more about that from Robbie below), it has been fantastic to work with the KWT Digital Development team in designing its functionality and seeing the Register evolve in response to our user testing.  

We have designed the Kent BNG Site Register to allow the listing of two types of BNG project: 

•  Surveyed sites: where the BNG metric has been completed and the number of BNG units available is known 

• Prospective sites: where a landowner believes that their land could be suitable for delivering BNG but has not yet had detailed assessments carried out.  

These listings are all plotted on a map of Kent and Medway, and in effect serves as BNG in Kent’s answer to Rightmove or Zoopla! The fantastic level of detail on the Kent BNG Site Register allows developers to make informed decisions on the likely availability of off-site BNG units, and to contact either the landowner, their agents or their ecological consultants (whichever is the landowners preference) to discuss the finer details. 

The BNG site listings within the Register will provide a reliable dataset for Local Planning Authorities to use to support planning decisions and for evidencing local planning policies. This will include supporting the implementation of the Biodiversity Gain Hierarchy, which encourages the creation/enhancement of habitat as close as possible to where losses have occurred. 

Kent BNG Site Register will also provide an evidence base to support local BNG policies through the demonstration of the supply of BNG units and sites across the county. As more and more data is added to the Register it will also support Kent Wildlife Trust’s work to encourage the adoption of an enhanced BNG target of 20%, by demonstrating that the supply of offsite BNG sites across Kent is not a barrier to the delivery of 20% BNG.

The evidence provided through the Register will also support Kent Wildlife Trust in it’s work to d This includes supporting an enhanced biodiversity net gain target of 20% (find out more about Kent Wildlife Trust's work with the Kent Nature Partnership around 20% BNG) through the demonstration of the supply of BNG units and sites across the county. 

Through both of my roles, with Kent Wildlife Trust and KCC, I am encouraging landowners (from councils, farmers, charities and private landowners) to firstly consider if habitat creation and/or enhancement through BNG is suitable for their land (not all sites will be!) and secondly to advertise their suitable sites on the Kent BNG Site Register.  

Robbie Still

The Digital Development team work across KWT Group, digitally transforming the Trust, creating managing tools and databases for Wilder Carbon, and undertaking commercial projects through (and in partnership with) Adonis Blue Environmental Consultancy.  

KWT’s involvement in this project began through my own involvement, alongside our former Head of Nature Based Solutions, Richard Bloor, in a “call for green sites” across Kent in response to the announcement of BNG. Along with KCC, district and borough councils and environment NGOs such as the RSPB and Woodland Trust, pitched the idea of a Kent specific Green Sites Register, so that we could record available sites and channel BNG into the best areas for the benefit for Kent’s biodiversity – preventing the loss of biodiversity in Kent through BNG units being provided in other counties with lower development pressure. 

The idea was shelved for around a year, as local planning authorities awaited guidance and funding from DEFRA. Upon the announcement of the promised funding, alongside the guidance facilitating the creation of the tool, the project was re-initiated under the name “Kent Biodiversity Net Gain Site Register”. Work was completed in December 2023, and the Register was formally launched in February 2024. It exists as a web application, sometimes called an app or web-app, but it isn’t mobile friendly and would only work well on a desktop.  

The web-app itself was an important and enjoyable project to work on. Our Digital Development Officer, Euan Mckenzie, led much of the work and managed to achieved what the Digital Development team have been aiming for since its inception – creating a web-app to the functionality, reliability and security standards of many commercial software development companies.

If you're interested in learning more, check out our previous blog on BNG and why it's so important. And, to access the Kent BNG Site Register, you can sign up here!