Lords Overturn Move To Ease River Pollution Rules

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The government's plan to ease nutrient neutrality rules so that more homes can be built near rivers has been rejected in the House of Lords with 192 peers voting against versus 161 in favour. The rules changes were cornerstones of Michael Gove and Rishi Sunak’s programme to boost housebuilding.

However, Baroness Willis of Summertown was very forceful in her House of Lords arguments, stating the Homebuilders Federation's claim that urban development counted for less than five per cent nutrient loading was out of date. She said an updated DEFRA,(Department For Food And Rural Affairs) report showed that sewage effluent was responsible for closer to 30 per cent of river nutrients with agriculture accounting for 70 per cent.

Baroness Willis said: "We are already dealing with extremely polluted rivers. In February this year the environment agency reported that only 14 per cent of our rivers are in a good ecological standard and that without new intervention this would drop to six per cent by 2027.

Duke of Wellington

Conservative peer the Duke of Wellington said: "More houses create more sewage. The government appears to be relieving housebuilders from the cost of this mitigation." He criticised the rules amendment for requiring planning authorities to assume nutrients from a new development would not affect a site and preventing them or a third party, from doing a pollution assessment.

Water companies blamed

Lord Best, a member of the built environment committee, said: "Housebuilding is not the main culprit. The first culprit is intensive farming and secondly the water companies who haven't done what they should have done for years."

The defeat of the amendment is a major setback for the government's plans to overturn a European Court of Justice ruling in 2018 known as the ‘Dutch case'. The judge ruled that the additional release of nutrients in protected areas or important wetland sites in unfavourable conditions should be limited.

SME housebuilders could fold

Finance broker Hank Zarihs Associates said development finance lenders were worried that SME builders in areas affected by the directive would go out of business and that the planning moratorium was sprung on them with no warning.

Research commissioned by the Homebuilders Federation (HBF) shows developers have given water companies more than £1bn in the past three years to support infrastructure for new homes. The trade body said that the EU habitats directive means there is a planning moratorium in 74 local authorities in England and Wales.

Jobs threat

HBF chair Stewart Baseley says: "New homes make a negligible contribution to the nutrients issue while around 150,000 homes across the country remain on hold. Whilst doing nothing to reduce the disgraceful pollution of our rivers, the ban is deepening our housing crisis, reducing economic activity and costing jobs. After four years we need to see politicians delivering a solution to address this damaging ban so desperately needed homes can be built."

Picture: Building by rivers has been restricted by the EU in the UK. Government plans to overturn the restrictions have been blocked by the House of Lords.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
20th September 2023

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