9th September 2025
Habitats to be secured is one example of many features in Mycelia that make our teams’ lives a lot easier and add a lot of confidence.
Local Planning Authorities like Northumberland face daunting challenges dealing with large numbers of BNG applications. As LPA Ecologists at Northumberland, we need to accurately assimilate complex information presented in an unwieldy spreadsheet, and undertake several tasks based on our understanding of that information. An important part of that is to work out which habitats need to be secured through legally binding agreements that typically need to be agreed at the planning permission stage.
In practice, this can be a difficult, multi-step exercise, and two challenges stand out:
1. Pinpointing significant on-site enhancements
Determining which on-site interventions qualify as “significant” under DEFRA guidance requires applying professional ecological judgement on a case-by-case basis, consistently across the team.
2. Translating ecology into legal language
Once the ecological data is gathered, it often needs to be converted into a Section 106 agreement, complete with a 30-year monitoring schedule. This step demands accurately summarising the habitat creation and enhancement by biodiversity units, habitat area and interventions. This forms an instruction to our Legal Services team, and so leaves little room for error.
To manage this process, we developed internal guidance to help us determine, in a consistent manner, whether a scheme is:
- non-significant
- significant but minor enough to be secured by a planning condition (with a monitoring fee secured by unilateral undertaking)
- significant and worth securing by a full S106 agreement
However, we were still keen to find ways to streamline this process further to ensure it was both efficient and robust.
The Solution: A pioneering, collaborative approach
We identified this challenge early on and approached Verna to see if Mycelia could help. They were responsive and engaged with us on the idea. Working collaboratively, we helped pioneer the ‘Habitats to be Secured’ feature:
- At the assessment stage, the software automatically uses the statutory guidance to identify the habitats that might be regarded as significant and that must therefore be secured by legal agreement. LPAs can vary these significant habitats to support local priorities and policies.
- Mycelia then presents this information clearly, making it simple to populate the relevant sections of our legal agreements and easily calculate monitoring fees.
- At the monitoring stage, the software automatically sets the habitats to be monitored, and Mycelia allows us to modify the list as necessary.
With this feature, Mycelia gives us the confidence that we are securing the right habitats and that our legal agreements are robust from the start of the 30-year period. Key benefits for us include:
- Automated Identification: Mycelia instantly flags candidate habitats to be secured. This saves our ecologists valuable time interpreting complex guidance, and reduces the risk of missing key habitats that must be secured and monitored. Mycelia highlights where further details may be required, to confirm whether the type and location of any significant onsite habitat enhancements proposed are appropriate, prior to determination of the application,
- Streamlined, Accurate Legal Processes: The feature helps to allocate resources more effectively by making sure that only the right cases are subject to a legal agreement. It provides a record of how the LPA identified on-site significant enhancements, and it makes it easy for our S106 team and other non-specialists to access the correct ecological information, ensuring accuracy in our legal agreements.
- Clearer Monitoring Plans: By accurately defining the habitats to be secured from the outset, Mycelia provides a clear foundation for our 30-year monitoring and reporting obligations. The feature feeds straight into the monitoring and reporting sections of the Mycelia software, removing the need for manual data entry.
Robust agreements and better environmental results
The ‘Habitats to be Secured’ feature has greatly assisted this part of our BNG process. It saves time, reduces uncertainty and empowers our wider team to progress applications confidently.
This ensures we are not only compliant, but are also driving better environmental outcomes, by properly securing valuable habitats and establishing clear, effective monitoring from day one.
‘Habitats to be secured’ is one example of many features in Mycelia that make our teams’ lives a lot easier and add a lot of confidence. It removes the feeling that we might miss something when we are dealing with a large number of cases.
What this means for LPAs
- Faster and more confident production of instructions to legal teams
- Early clarity for developers, cutting pre-app time significantly.
- Time back: frees up ecologists for higher-value schemes and negotiations.
- Consistency: the same ruleset can be applied across all applications, reducing legal risk.
- Better monitoring fees: knowing exactly which habitats are secured supports accurate 30‑year fee calculations.
LPAs can save significant officer time, reduce the risk of errors in legal agreements, and ensure BNG commitments are properly secured and monitored over the long term. Mycelia provides confidence that the legal and ecological requirements of BNG are being met efficiently and effectively in Northumberland.