Image of a hand holding a green piece of fabric shaped like a house in a grass field.

New rules that came into play this week mean that developers in England now have to deliver 10% Biodiversity Net Gain when building new housing, industrial or commercial developments.

This makes England the first country in the world to make Biodiversity Net Gain a legal requirement so take a look at this week’s blog to find out more about what this means and how it will be implemented.

A new report shows that local authorities across England and Wales have, in their bank accounts, an estimated £2.8 billion of unused contributions from home builders.

This is money that builders contribute through what’s known as ‘Section 106’ contributions to local authorities as part of the planning agreement, the purpose of which is to fund local services and infrastructure upgrades. Find out more about how these important funds are going unspent in this week’s blog.

With all the political news focusing on the UK budget last week, you might have missed some amendments being made to the government’s Levelling Up Bill which will have implications for the construction industry.

Alongside measures that are supposed to help regenerate communities, speed up the delivery of new homes, improve wastewater facilities and give local people a greater say in how their neighbourhood looks, the government have presented what they’re calling BIDEN principles which should be applied to all new developments.

Intrigued as to what this means, we thought we’d find out more and use this week’s blog to explain.