Habitat and biodiversity loss is an urgent contemporary crisis. The UK is now one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries. While the causes are complex, urbanisation is a recognised driver.

Urban development is negotiated and authorised through the UK’s land-use planning systems, which make spatial decisions that have significant economic, social, and environmental impacts.

This project will ask: are new planning policies to protect biodiversity improving outcomes for biodiversity on the ground? And are there areas where the system could be improved to ensure better ecological outcomes? 

We will compare and contrast England, which has seen the recent introduction of Biodiversity Net Gain, with Scotland, where policy protections for biodiversity do not yet involve a metric.