Home secretary Michael Gove is scrapping EU-era nutrient neutrality rules to build new more than 100,000 homes by 2030.
Gove said the “EU rules has held [the UK] back” to build new homes.
The nutrient neutrality rules that were introduced in 2017 to ensure that new developments don’t leak nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates from wastewater into local wetlands and waterways in protected areas.
Developers were obliged to mitigate or offset the pollution occurred, which builders complained was costly and time consuming. Now under Gove’s plans, developers won’t need to do so.
The government said housing developments contribute a small amount of nutrient pollution and will “tackle the key causes of nutrients” by doubling its investment in its nutrient mitigation scheme to £280 million, said environment secretary Thérèse Coffey.
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Gove added that the new funding will allow the UK to go “further to protect and restore our precious waterways whilst still building the much-needed homes this country needs.”
Developers have welcomed the nutrient neutrality rules scrap as they were blocking plans to build new homes. But environmental groups warn it will damage the environment.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds director of conservation Katie-Jo Luxton said that if the nutrient neutrality rules are scrapped, “pollution will accumulate unchecked, and our rivers face total ecological collapse.”
Greenpeace UK policy director Doug Parr 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.
“Scrapping or weakening limits on chemicals from sewage and farm run-offs would be a sure sign that ministers have completely given up on saving our great waterways and the precious wildlife they host,” he added.
