GainScout helps you take a first look at whether a piece of land in England could be a candidate for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). Point the map at a field and one tap reads that spot against more than 20 official government datasets - designations, flood risk, farmland grade, nature recovery and the registered gain-sites market - then turns it into a plain-English result and, if you want, a shareable report. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Need help or found a bug? Email leonfigueira@gmail.com, or use Report a bug or share an idea in the app's Account tab, which fills in your app version for you.
Is this the same data as the government sites? Yes - every finding comes from official, public data (planning.data.gov.uk and Natural England and Defra open data), live, with its source and date shown. The gain-sites register is a dated snapshot kept in the app so it works offline, and the app picks up a newer snapshot by itself when one is published. It is guidance for your own research, not an ecological survey, a statutory biodiversity metric calculation, or legal, planning or financial advice - always confirm on the ground and with qualified professionals before relying on it.
What do I pay for? Free accounts get 3 land checks a week, up to 3 saved sites and their first report free. GainScout is in beta, and until 31 December 2026 the free allowance is bigger: 5 land checks a week, 5 saved sites, 2 extra free reports and one Area Scan a week. Beyond that you can buy reports one at a time or in a pack of ten, or subscribe to Pro (monthly, quarterly or yearly) for unlimited checks, reports and saved sites plus the professional tools (Area Scan, draw-your-parcel, the gain-sites browser and side-by-side comparison). We deliberately call these "reports", not "credits" - in BNG, credits means something specific and different.
I accidentally used a report I didn't mean to. Email me and I'll send you a one-time support code that adds it back. Redeem it in Account → "Have a support code?".
Will my sites move to a new phone? Keep iCloud sync on in Account (it is on unless you turn it off) and your sites, reports and photos stay in step across your iPhone, iPad and Mac through your own iCloud. You can also use Back up everything to save a single file you can restore on another device. Pro follows your Apple ID automatically; if you switch phones with reports left over, email me for a support code.
Does it cover Scotland and Wales? Not yet - BNG and these datasets are England-only, so a check outside England is refused rather than guessed.
A check said some sources couldn't be reached. One or more official services didn't respond, so the check is marked incomplete - run it again on a better connection before relying on it.
GainScout has no accounts and no tracking. See the Privacy Policy.
GainScout is made by Leon Figueira. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.