How we produce supply outlooks and price ranges

Supply outlooks

The regional outlooks in the sourcing check, the supply index and the region pages are produced automatically from Natural England’s biodiversity gain site register. Every day the site reads the public register, takes each registered gain site’s grid reference, converts it to a location and places it in one of the nine English regions and its local planning authority. For each region it then counts the registered sites creating area habitat, hedgerow and watercourse habitat, sums the units allocated to developments by type and records the hectares secured.

The count is turned into one of three bands. Good means 35 or more sites creating area habitat in the region, 20 or more creating hedgerow habitat, or 8 or more creating watercourse habitat. Limited means 15, 8 and 3 or more. Scarce is fewer than that. Sites removed from the register are excluded. The register does not publish unallocated unit balances, so the bands describe how many providers are active in a region rather than a precise stock of units; the sourcing check then confirms availability for your site directly with providers.

Outlooks describe a region, not a site. The multiplier, distinctiveness and trading rules decide whether any particular unit works for any particular development.

Price ranges

The ranges on the prices page are compiled from published England pricing reports (most recently February 2026, covering 165 registered habitat banks), public commentary on those reports and gov.uk statutory credit prices. We present conservative ranges per unit for local supply, by habitat and distinctiveness. Prices vary by provider, habitat, distinctiveness and location and only the provider can confirm a price. Nothing on this site is a quote.

The spatial risk multiplier

The multiplier arithmetic in the sourcing check uses the current rules: local 1.0, adjacent 0.75, elsewhere in England 0.5. Local and adjacent are currently defined by local planning authority and National Character Area boundaries. The government has stated an intention to move spatial risk to England’s 48 Local Nature Recovery Strategy areas. When we last checked, no commencement date had been set. Results are rounded up to two decimal places.

Regulatory facts

Every regulatory fact on the site carries a “last checked” date and is verified against gov.uk and legislation.gov.uk on the day it is written or updated. Where the position is uncertain, for example the brownfield exemption consultation, we say so and treat sites as in scope.

Postcode lookups

The sourcing check uses the open postcodes.io service to find the local planning authority and region for a postcode. The postcode is sent to that service for lookup only. The site does not publish provider or site details.

How we check providers before an introduction

• The site appears on Natural England’s biodiversity gain site register with a BGS reference and unallocated units of the type required
• The securing agreement, Section 106 or conservation covenant, is in place for at least 30 years
• The habitat type, distinctiveness and target condition match the trading rule for the developer’s loss
• The provider supplies allocation confirmation and documentation suitable for a biodiversity gain plan

Update schedule

Regulatory facts are re-checked whenever a page is edited and at least quarterly. The register synchronisation runs daily and the supply index commentary is updated monthly. Price ranges are reviewed when a new public pricing report is published. The sourcing check’s outlook data and the LNRS note are updated as soon as a commencement date or new register counts are available.

Attribution

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0: Natural England’s biodiversity gain site register.

Disclaimer

All outlooks, counts and price ranges are indicative information, not legal, planning or financial advice. Confirm with your ecologist, planning authority and the provider. See our terms of use.

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