OAKBANK NEWS AND BLOG

On 15 April 2026, Defra published responses to two parallel Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) consultations and opened a third on an additional targeted exemption for brownfield residential development. Together, the responses confirm when major infrastructure projects will start drawing on the off-site biodiversity unit market, exempt around half of the smallest residential sites, and broaden the geography in which a land parcel can supply units to a development. What has been con

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs) are spatial plans, stemming from the Environment Act 2021, to drive habitat restoration, nature-based solutions and environmental improvements across England. With nature in decline (e.g. species studied across the UK have declined on average by 19% since 1970) and in the context of national targets for reversing this decline, LNRSs should provide locally led roadmaps showing where best outcomes (i.e. most needed and most likely to su