Biodiversity net gain plans in Redbridge

Green Belt, large gardens and a leafy outer borough

Green Belt covers 34 per cent of Redbridge, and gardens make up 27.4 per cent of land. With 66.2 per cent of households living in a house, rear gardens are the standard setting for a development proposal.

The Green Belt share affects the proposal in two ways. A site inside it brings a separate planning test on the principle of development, and it is more likely to contain grass, scrub or mature trees that count as habitat. The two tests are different, and a good habitat plan does not rescue a scheme that fails the Green Belt one.

The borough also has 3 registered parks and gardens and 16 conservation areas, so planting proposals must respect the historic landscape too.

Mature oaks and hedgerows along older field boundaries are the features that raise a Redbridge baseline. They take decades to replace, so the metric treats their loss harshly, and the practical advice is to design around them from the first sketch.

Who is exempt in Redbridge

Householder extensions, loft conversions and permitted development need no net gain plan, and a site of 0.2 hectares or less is exempt unless priority habitat is present. Redbridge's own list puts its explicit ecological demand on majors, so a small home usually meets only the national rules.

That leaves the middle ground. A scheme of a few new dwellings is not a major, but if it sits next to designated land the officer may still ask for an ecological appraisal. We prepare a short, proportionate one so there is no gap at validation.

Impacts below 25 square metres of habitat are disregarded, which can matter on a narrow side-return plot.

Where a scheme sits close to designated land, we also look at lighting and drainage. A new driveway lamp or a soakaway that discharges toward a watercourse can matter to the ecologist as much as the footprint, and we deal with both on the plan.

The decision record and the file we prepare

Minor applications are granted 69.8 per cent of the time across 387 decisions, and householder applications 82.8 per cent. A scheme with Green Belt or designated land nearby is where an ecology gap does the most harm.

We draw the baseline parcels, proposed planting and any retained trees on one landscape sheet in our planning drawings, and for a garden house the new build drawings add the roof and boundary detail. The gain is kept up for at least 30 years.

If you are weighing a scheme on the Green Belt edge, ask us about the planning test first. It is the larger risk, and the biodiversity work is only worth buying once the principle of the scheme looks sound.

Price and next step

No list price applies, because the work depends on the habitat parcels and whether designated land is nearby. You receive a fixed quote after a free constraints check.

Send the address and what you plan to build. We will tell you whether Redbridge will treat it as needing an assessment, a plan or only a statement on the form.

Our independent check applies here too: a second chartered technologist, never the person who built the metric, reads the calculation against the landscape sheet before it is issued.