I call it performance art, but my friend Ariel calls it wasting time. History will decide. 

Like an aircraft taking off in the autumn, it’s been a bumpy ride though low clouds over the past few weeks for green issues affecting rural land.  BNG has been in-bound for some time and has dominated conversations about green uses of land for the past year.  And the reason for that was the expected mandatory requirement for 10% BNG in November 2023.  That was looking very tight, and the deferral of its introduction to January 2024 for major projects, and April 2024 for smaller sites, may give a welcome breathing space. 

Or maybe not.  We have a situation which is rather fluid.  The deferral is either a good or a bad thing for BNG, but it’s not entirely clear which.  Whatever the potential benefits of being better prepared,  the decision to junk the November deadline for BNG's introduction, and the way in which that news seeped out, has caused real concern.  Is it a wobble that may go to the heart of the system, particularly at a time when the adoption of Net Zero policies is becoming a political issue, and with the politics bound to be coming harder and faster as we head towards a likely election in 2024?  

For some, this is barbarians at the gate and the end of the green world that we were coming to know. But from others (and there have been strong countervailing views expressed) the Government statement on the introduction of BNG with effect from January 2024 is positive news that means the system will be credibly operating.

To seek refuge in the thoughts of Harris K Telemacher: history will decide.  Certainly it felt as if the system was being stretched to deliver the mechanisms for BNG, notably the conservation covenants system, with presently no designated Responsible Bodies available to take on the supervision of conservation covenants.  

So is this in fact, a practical step by the Government, recognising that the system could not be delivered, but going full bore to do so, setting challenging deadlines to force the pace?  For many in the sector, who see the considerable benefits accruing to rural land through the adoption of these policies, that is likely to be their hope and, realistically, it still feels like BNG will be launched broadly in line with expectations.  The UK is a country that likes its natures green (sit back in your aircraft having reached cruising altitude and look at that oh so satisfying view of green fields and hedges from 30,000 feet – through the breaks in the cloud...) and measures that will benefit that green use seem likely to have a place in future.

Those who are more cautious will look at the deferral of BNG, and the intended scrapping of nutrient neutrality - notwithstanding the Parliamentary ruckus on-going with the House of Lords about it - together with the rhetoric coming from Westminster, as a sign of inconstancy.   And that is not the most helpful feeling when dealing with the long-term use of land.