Small Sites Metric: Eligibility and Competence

The Small Sites Metric (SSM) is a simpler statutory biodiversity metric route for qualifying small developments. “Small site” is not enough on its own: the current eligibility rules, affected habitats and competence requirements must all be checked.

Start with the current guidance

Rules and exemptions can change. Use the current GOV.UK metric guidance and the current SSM tool rather than relying on a remembered area threshold or an old worked example.

Questions to resolve

• Does the development meet the current definition and thresholds for a small development?
• Are all affected habitats permitted within the SSM?
• Are priority or irreplaceable habitats involved?
• What protected-site or protected-species evidence is needed?
• Who is competent to identify habitats, assess condition and complete the formal work?

Why BioGain cannot decide eligibility

Public datasets can indicate mapped constraints, but they may be incomplete, outdated or too coarse for a site-level decision. Eligibility can depend on information that only survey evidence and project details establish.

What an early screen can do

• bring available environmental records into one view;
• highlight questions for survey and design teams;
• provide an indicative baseline starting point;
• record assumptions and limitations for follow-up.

It cannot produce submission-ready SSM evidence, prove habitat absence, establish competence or determine that professional ecological input is unnecessary.