The Government is pinning its hopes on a new environmental restoration fund to replace restrictive environmental rules stalling housebuilding and major infrastructure projects.
- 74 local authorities have protected sitesacross 27 water catchments
- Up to 150,000 new build homes have been halted
- Environmental restoration fund hoped to speed things up
Environmental restoration fund to replace restrictive nutrient neutrality rules
Nutrient neutrality rules blocking tens of thousands of new home builds will be replaced with a restoration fund, environment secretary Steve Reed has stressed.
Developers will no longer have to mitigate environmental impacts before gaining permission to build.
National Federation of Builders, NFB, policy and market insight head Rico Wojtulewicz said: “The Government must ensure all developments can access this scheme because environmental costs disproportionately hit smaller companies.”
Currently,74 local authorities in England cannot allow new residential developments unless builders prove their projects are ‘nutrient neutral’.
The Homebuilders’ Federation, NBF, has estimated up to 150,000 homes have been blocked in the last six years due to Natural England’s interpretation of the EU habitats directive in late 2018.
The trade body calculated developers were paying up to £25,000 on nutrient mitigation for every home built on such sites.
Swathes of the country are protected habitat sites
Areas that have been most affected include Herefordshire, Somerset, Norfolk, Teesside, Kent, Wiltshire and the Solent.
Building of up to 400 new homes in Herefordshire was stalled due to falling within the protected river Lugg catchment area.
Plans to build a new railway station in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, took five years to complete after the discovery there were great-crested newts on the site.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: “The status quo is blocking the building of homes and failing to protect the environment.
“Our reforms will allow tens of thousands of homes to be built while protecting the natural environment we all depend on.”
The government hopes changes to the planning and regeneration billlater this year will advance up to 150 major road, rail and energy projects by 2030 and help it hit the 1.5m new homes target.
Brokers Hank Zarihs Associates said development finance lenders would support changes that speeded up planning and lower costs particularly for the SME builder.
However, the previous government’sattempt to scrap nutrient neutrality rules failed when the House of Lords voted against changes in the levelling up and regeneration bill in September 2023.
HBF published a report on the findings of environmental consultants Brookbanks that showed intensive farming was responsible for about 70 per cent of nitrogen pollution in rivers. The report found that occupancy of new homes accounted for 0.29 per cent of emissions and 0.73 per cent of total phosphorus.
LinkedIn Question: How confident are you that Labour will be able to change environmental mitigation rules to enable more housebuilding?
