24 Oct, 2023/ by Homeward Legal /News
There is a phrase that has cropped up in recent weeks in news reports that might be worrying or confusing for a number of people: ‘nutrient neutrality'.
In particular, the government has proposed to relax or remove the nutrient neutrality rules in order to “unlock 100,000 homes” while they were looking at “protecting and improving the environment.”
This comes hot on the heels of numerous reports of water companies releasing untreated sewage into rivers, streams and the outlets into the seas around the coast.
Why do we need more housing?
The basic problem is that there are insufficient homes to meet the population and the demand.
This means that more land is required to be turned over to prime estate for building upon.
The UK's population is around the 67 millions mark, which hasn't vastly changed over the last half-century or so. Nonetheless, the demand is increasing because of, in part, second-home ownership increasing, but mainly because fewer people on average are living in the same abode as they were even twenty years ago.
What is nutrient neutrality?
According to the government's proposals, the European Union directive (created in law in 2017, under which the UK were subject prior to the Brexit treaty) is ‘defective'. It is also forcing the blockage of the process for building new homes because plans are not conforming to the rigour of the law.
There are numerous natural sites and habitats around the country, which are protected because of the flora and fauna that live there.
The problem with building and other activities - and as a side point, flushing raw sewage into the local waters - is that they increase the nutrient pollution (particularly of nitrogen and phosphates). In turn, this will promote the growth of certain plants and animals to the detriment of protected species.
New buildings will increase the amount of waste water and sewage likely to enter the environment over and above what already exists purely because of the increased number of people raising the volume of waste.
Therefore, the purpose of the EU regulation was intended for these building activities to be allowed under the strict requirement that any additional harmful products either be removed or neutralised to protect these habitats from impact and decline.
What does that mean to planning and building?
Because the sewage plants do not neutralise all of the harmful chemicals in any excess foul water expressed into the natural freshwater system, any increase in that volume will obviously increase the amount of the pollution entering the waterways as a result of increased building.
In addition, a legal ruling in 2018 dictated that neutralisation could not be put off but had to be part of the building process.
If the building companies couldn't sign up to achieving that requirement, then planning could not be granted.
You can read more detail at the Local Government Association's Frequently Asked Questions page on the subject.
The Home Builders Federation points out that the gritty problem of nutrient neutrality, while it is being discussed at government level, is threatening the livelihood of SME builders as they are prevented from building new homes because of the planning rules, while also identifying the point that there is “no link between house building and river pollution”.
The Government for their part is planning to double their investment in its nutrient mitigation plan, as a potential pacifier for environmental protests.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace has said that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities' plan to “rip up” the rules is not thought through, particularly as the rivers are sick already and to increase the toxicity of the nutrients further does not make economic or ecological sense.
Is there a solution?
There is little room for movement, it would appear, from the Government on its plans.
If it goes ahead, there is naturally going to be a lot of work for the planning departments of local councils to understand what the provisions of the relaxed rules would mean.
It's not going to be straightforward and it's likely to take some time to iron out the points of the decision once there is agreement for it to go ahead.
In the meantime, there seems to be little mention of developing brownfield sites (rather than spreading further into current green tracts). There are also reports that investors are looking to exploit farming land that is no longer being used for its original purpose - although this will come under the planning rules, whatever they turn out to be.
For the first-time buyer, there seems to be evidence in an analysis by Rightmove that demand is growing to buy an older property that needs work doing on it, rather than opting for a new-build.
Perhaps this news will smooth out some of the knotty issues identified with the current housebuilding projections.
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