If you’re developing a data centre and seeking national planning consent in England, you must now demonstrate how the project will deliver at least a 10% improvement in biodiversity.
That’s according to the new rules which take effect from today, which will apply to qualifying Development Consent Order (DCO) applications submitted through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime.
The good news is that developers that got their applications in before today, won’t need to demonstrate the biodiversity improvement. That’s because the rules won’t apply retrospectively – but given the spotlight on the industry, improving the local environment could go some way towards improving relations with local communities.
It’s also not like the rules are brand new to data centre developers. In fact, most major developments in England have been subject to mandatory biodiversity net gain since February 2024, the difference is that the latest change extends that obligation to projects going down the national infrastructure consenting route.
What developers will need to demonstrate
Under a dedicated biodiversity gain statement published by Defra, developers must submit an outline biodiversity gain plan alongside their DCO application. This must set out how the project will achieve a measurable improvement in biodiversity compared with the site’s pre-development value, calculated using the Government’s biodiversity metric.
Developers can meet the requirement by creating or enhancing habitats within their sites, securing registered biodiversity improvements elsewhere, or purchasing biodiversity credits as a last resort.
If choosing to improve habitats on the site, the Government is requiring developers to maintain those habitats for at least 30 years, with equivalent long-term protections also applying to any registered off-site gains. That means the biodiversity improvements shouldn’t be just a temporary boost.
There will be real consequences for those that don’t follow the rules too. In fact, the Secretary of State won’t even be able to grant development consent unless satisfied that the biodiversity objective will be achieved, although delivery can be secured through legally enforceable requirements within the DCO.
Additionally, updated biodiversity gain plans must be approved before construction begins, or before individual phases commence, and any outstanding biodiversity units needed to meet the requirement must be secured before the project becomes operational.
Part of wider data centre planning reforms
The new requirements around biodiversity are just the latest in a string of changes to England’s planning system that have impacted the data centre industry in recent years. In fact, the very changes to England’s planning system that allowed data centre developers to seek nationally significant infrastructure status in the first place came into force in January 2026.
But more changes are afoot. In fact, the Government published its draft National Policy Statement for Data Centres just last week, where it proposed a new framework for assessing nationally significant data centre applications, including their environmental impacts. It’s currently consulting on those changes until January 2027.
However, while the National Policy Statement is still being finalised, the biodiversity requirements are already in force.
That’s an important distinction for developers considering the national consenting route. While the Government is looking to make it easier to get major data centre projects approved, developers will still need to demonstrate that their proposals meet environmental obligations.
And with biodiversity net gain now a statutory requirement, those environmental considerations will need to be addressed from the outset, rather than left until a project is ready to begin construction.
