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Biodiversity net gain leads for England

Find the developments that need your biodiversity units.

Each week we pick out planning applications in England that will have to buy off-site biodiversity units, and send them to the habitat banks, brokers and councils who sell them.

Ask for a sample How it works
  • WeeklyNew leads by email
  • EnglandGrowing council by council
  • All three unit typesArea, hedgerow and watercourse

Why it matters

Since February 2024, developers in England have had to deliver a 10% gain in biodiversity.

Some small sites are exempt. Plenty of the rest can't fit the gain on their own land. Those developers buy off-site units from registered habitat banks, or pay for statutory credits as a last resort.

They have to secure the units before the council approves their biodiversity gain plan, and in most cases work can't start until it does. That leaves a window between the planning application and the start of work.

The trouble is finding them. The numbers sit in metric spreadsheets and ecology reports, spread across hundreds of council planning websites. We do the digging and send you what we find.

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Three kinds of unit

The metric counts habitat in three separate ways, and a developer has to meet the gain for each kind that applies. Units of one kind can't stand in for another, so every lead tells you which kinds it needs.

  • Area

    Grassland, woodland, scrub, wetland and other habitats, measured by area.

  • Hedgerow

    Hedges and lines of trees, measured by length.

  • Watercourse

    Rivers, streams and ditches, measured by length.

Who it's for

For anyone with units to sell

Habitat banks

You've done the work to register your land. Now you need buyers. We show you the developments near your site that still need units.

Brokers

You match developers with sites across several areas. We give you a steady list of buyers, with the numbers already pulled out.

Councils selling units

Some councils run their own habitat banks. See which applications in your area, and next door, still need units.

The metric gives more credit to units bought close to the development. So we filter leads to the areas you can sell into.

What's in a lead

One development, ready to follow up

We read the planning documents and set out the parts that matter to a seller: what the developer needs, how far along they are and who to contact.

Every lead in the weekly email covers the same seven things.

Application
Reference, council and site address
Stage
Submitted or decided, with dates
Off-site units needed
Area, hedgerow and watercourse units, each listed separately
Habitats
The habitat types and distinctiveness asked for
Already secured?
Whether units have been bought or reserved
Applicant and agent
As named on the application
Documents
Links to the biodiversity metric and the ecology report
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How it works

From planning file to your inbox

  1. We find the applications

    We go through new planning applications and pick out the ones that will need off-site units.

  2. We read the documents

    The biodiversity metric, the ecology report and the gain plan. We pull out how many units are needed, of which kind and for which habitats.

  3. We check every lead

    Each one is checked before it goes out. Where the documents are unclear, the lead says so.

  4. You get them every week

    New leads arrive by email each week, filtered to the areas you sell into.

How you get it

Weekly email

The new leads for your area, once a week.

Dashboard

Every lead in your region, to search and look back through.

Data feed

On request, for teams who want leads in their own systems.

Coverage

England, council by council

We're starting with a small group of English councils and adding more as we go. Our focus is applications made since biodiversity net gain became mandatory in February 2024.

The rest of the UK runs its own rules, so for now we stick to England.

Tell us where you sell and we'll tell you whether we cover it yet.

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Early days

We're putting together our first sample of leads.

If you sell biodiversity units, we'd like to show it to you and hear what would make it worth paying for. Drop George a line.

Ask for a sample

george@hedgerowdata.co.uk