Habitat Bank

The Hart Habitat Bank is a way to fund ecological and habitat improvements on our countryside sites while also supporting development in Hart through the sale of Biodiversity Net Gain Credits. Credits can be sold to developers through the Hart Habitat Bank to offset their development, and fund positive improvement and management of new and existing ecosystems in Hart District.

We create or restore habitats to offset the impacts of development so ‘biodiversity units’ can be generated from the habitat enhancement. Those enhancements are converted into ‘units’ or ‘credits’ ready for selling or trading within Nature Markets / Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Markets. The biodiversity units can then be sold to developers seeking to comply with the legal requirement of delivering mandatory 10% BNG on planning applications.

We have recently completed our pilot BNG project, at Whitewater Meadows Country Park. Watch the video above to find out more about the projects aims or visit the project page.

Following on from the project at Whitewater, we are currently in the process of registering our BNG credits for sale. 

Please email at hartbng@hart.gov.uk to register your interest or to find out more about our planned timeline.

More information around cost and types of credits will be available soon. Once credits are on sale we will publish a formal process for purchasing credits.