BNG Online

Applying to include a digital tool on this page

This website may include additional links to digital tools on external websites in the following circumstances:

• The digital tool is hosted on a government website; or

• The digital tool supports a planning applicant or Local Planning Authority (LPA) in completing a BNG-related task; or

• The digital tool provides information or advice that the statutory metric sheet or Small Site Metric (SSM) cannot or does not provide.

We will not consider the following:

• Services or tools that are not exclusively focused on supporting planning applicants or Local Planning Authorities fufil their BNG obligations.

• Services or tools specifically designed to be used by ecologists or ecological consultants or digital tools that support ecologists or ecological consultants complete the biodiversity metric. Such services and tools should be directed towards appropriate trade bodies such as CIEEM.

• Services or tools that do not clearly follow all relevant processes and steps set out in UK legislation or HM Government guidance.

Any digital tool must be hosted on a site that is usable and accessible (especially on mobile) and must be a safe place to send a user as set out in GOV.UK guidelines.  

If the website owner agrees to include any link, the placement and content of the link on this website will be determined at the website owner’s sole discretion. The website owner reserves the right to remove any link, at any time, at their sole discretion. Examples of when this might take place is if the content of the link is deemed to no longer be useful or no longer deemed to be safe.

Extra requirements for digital tools that help planning applicants complete the metric sheet

In addition to the above requirements, any digital tool which is designed to support planning applicants in the production of a statutory biodiversity metric sheet or SSM should be submitted to the Future Homes Hub and must be able to demonstrate all of the following:

• It produces a complete and statutory-compliant metric sheet (either a statutory metric sheet or a Small Site Metric Sheet); and

• It does not reduce the quality of ecological information or overcomplicate the process

To demonstrate that a tool does not reduce the quality of ecological information or overcomplicate the process, a suitable license with appropriate permissions from UKHAB Ltd will need to be provided with any request for a planning application.
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