Why do they hate clean water? Government plans to scrap EU-era water pollution restrictions 

A new policy announced today will remove current EU-era rules that state that new developments must achieve nutrient neutrality in order to avoid pollution of local waters.

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Campaigners have criticised the plan, causing the Prime Minister to defend his government’s green credentials (in that guilty toddler-like cadence we've all reluctantly grown to know), saying, ‘Of course we want to get to net zero, but we just want to do it in a proportionate and pragmatic way that does not unnecessarily burden families and households.’ 

 

Michael Gove, Housing secretary said, ‘ We are committed to building new homes this country needs and to enhancing our environment. The way EU rules have been applied has held us back.’

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Held us back? Or protected us from growing an extra forehead anytime we go near a body of water?

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The Wildlife Trust have accused the government of disgusting behaviour, leading to even more pollution in our rivers, while, Labour’s Lisa Nandy, Shadow housing secretary said, ‘With housebuilding projected to fall to the lowest level since World War II and our rivers full of sewage, the Conservatives are failing on both housing and the environment. The government is responsible for environmental policy; housebuilders should not be asked to cover for their abject failure.’

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‘The next Labour government will bring an end to the Tory sewage scandal by delivering mandatory monitoring on all sewage outlets, introducing automatic fines for discharges paid for by eroding dividends, setting ambitious targets for stopping systematic sewage dumping and ensuring that water bosses are legally held to account for negligence.’

 

What is Nutrient Neutrality?

When a new development is built near water, it can cause extra pollution as a result of the different ways the land is used. This can happen in cases of new housing developments, fertilisers and animal waste. In freshwater, increased level of nutrients - such as phosphates and nitrates, can speed up the growth of certain plants, which will then impact the wildlife.

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Housing developments can achieve nutrient neutrality when the nutrient load caused by an increase in waste water from that development is mitigated. Planning a new development which abides by mitigation methods can avoid additional nutrient loads.

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Rules set by Natural England state that 62 local authorities can’t sign off on new developments unless the plans are nutrient neutral in protected areas including the Solent, Somerset, Norfolk and Teeside.

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These rules have been in place since 2019 following a ruling by the European Court of Justice.

 

Alas…

However, the new policy will scrap these rules and instead, plans to double the investment in its nutrient mitigation scheme – run by Natural England, to £280 million. With an additional £166 million allocated for slurry infrastructure grants.

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The government intends to work with the housing building industry to ensure the larger developers make an appropriate contribution. But how they’re planning to do so is still in discussions with the Home Builders Federation. However, it has been reported that these proposed changes will see the cost to mitigate nutrient pollution for new housing, shifted from developers to taxpayers. So, basically, they’ll scrap the rules that protect our waters, then we have to pay for the clean-up.

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Dr Doug Parr, policy director for Greenpeace UK, said: ‘Who would look at our sickly, sewage-infested rivers and conclude that what they need is weaker pollution rules? No-one - and that should include our government.’

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‘Instead of allowing house builders to cut corners, the Sunak administration should make sure we have the right infrastructure to handle our sewage so we can build new homes without sacrificing our rivers' health.’

 

Craig bennet, Chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts says ‘Make no mistake – this is a license from the government for the commercial housebuilding lobby to profit from the pollution of our rivers.

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