Vicious Cycle?

bowersjake02
May 9
3 min read

Mark Simmonds, Planning Director of Vardo Intelligent Planning Services Ltd (VIP) explains how the need to create Biodiversity Net Gain is hitting Gypsy and Traveller site developers

If you're planning on developing your own private site, you may be hit with a bill for hundreds of thousands of pounds if you can't create more space for wildlife than that which you've developed. Unlike people building their own houses Gypsy and Traveller families creating their own sites aren't exempt from the need to create Biodiversity Net Gain.

I am hoping to reach out to the Gypsy and Traveller Community and to the Planning profession – please write to the government and/or your MP - you can urgently help with a huge issue regarding BNG exemptions and the utter policy failure to give any recognition of these for the Gypsy Traveller Communities of England.

The last Conservative govt. brought in BNG (Biodiversity Net Gain) and Labour have retained it with no changes. Whilst we are all signed up to the environment, ecology, and habitats this is having a devastating impact upon Gypsy and Traveller sites.

For information on BNG see here;

Biodiversity net gain - GOV.UK

In its simplest form BNG requires that the habitat value of a site is 10% MORE after a development than it was before development started. If it can't be provided on site then credits can he bought at eye watering prices running into 10s of thousands.

Settled people can, and consistently do, claim a full exemption as 'self build' for up to 9 dwellings and not pay a penny...

However, this does not seem to apply to Gypsy and Traveller people. And this is where the injustice lies – how can Gypsy and Traveller people not create their own home as a ‘self-build’?!

We work with around 55 Traveller families and currently have several Gypsy Traveller applications for pitches in the planning system.

A couple are small single-family pitches and to my mind are 'self build', however the Council as the Local Planning Authority won't accept them as self-build as they aren't 'building' a house.

The BNG Officer at one local planning authority floated the figure of £117,000 in off-site BNG costs for one modest self-build Traveller site. This seems to be highly discriminatory as by their very culture and way of life Gypsies and Travellers do not build houses, they live in caravans.

The BNG financial requirements are eye watering and a threat to the way of life of Gypsy and Traveller people in my opinion.This issue, more than any other in my 25 years of working in the planning profession, is concerning me. Gypsies and Travellers already have profound difficulties in obtaining new sites, due to lack of allocations and the public perceptions as soon as an application is submitted.

This lack of any exemption from BNG is not only financially challenging but also leads to a lack of equality with those from the settled community utilising the self-build exemption. It makes no sense that caravans are not considered as being ‘development’ as by their very nature they are temporary and moveable, so how can their placement create more harm than a bricks and mortar home which warrants compensatory BNG contributions?

This is central government imposing a 'one size fits all' policy to all residents but with no acknowledgement that I can find that Gypsies and Travellers don't build houses they live in caravans - and therefore they cannot, accordingly, as Council's are administering this, be exempt.

I have one site for 11 Travellers pitches I'm handling and the BNG is likely to be around £250,000 as its stands. Financially the families involved are unlikely to be able to pay such figures and their attempts to live a secure existence on a lawful site is again frustrated.

Travellers must become exempt from BNG as an absolute urgency.

To impose BNG on Travellers with no exemption is to my mind not only highly discriminatory but shows a distinct lack of understanding for their lifestyle and that they form a part of our local community. To place more hurdles in front of Gypsies sand Travellers in obtaining lawful sites is a travesty and can only increase the issue of unlawful encampments on car parks and open space.

You can send comments to me marked as being for the public domain so that I can share with colleagues and central government etc.

mark.vardoplanning@yahoo.com

Many thanks and best wishes.

Mark Simmonds BA(Hons) BTP MRTPI

Director

Mark Simmonds Planning Services Ltd