Green restrictions on building adding £10,000 to the cost of new homes

Green restrictions on house building are adding up to £10,000 to the cost of new homes, council leaders warn

• Rishi Sunak facing pressure to scrap rules aimed at offsetting water pollution 
• Council leaders urged the PM to alleviate them of the burden of cleaning rivers 

Controversial green restrictions on house-building are adding up to £10,000 to the cost of new homes, council leaders have warned the Prime Minister.

Rishi Sunak is facing growing calls from his ministers as well as developers to scrap strict rules aimed at offsetting the water pollution caused by new houses, which have been blamed for blocking more than 100,000 new properties.

Now a cross-party group from local government has piled on the pressure to intervene and force the Natural England quango to axe its guidance on so-called ‘nutrient neutrality’, warning it has ‘effectively stopped housebuilding’ across a quarter of England.

Ten council leaders told No 10 earlier this month, in a letter seen by the Mail, how tens of thousands of new homes have been blocked around the country, builders’ merchants forced to lay off staff and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money spent on environmental schemes.

They urged the PM: ‘We call upon you to help ensure that the burden of cleaning our rivers shifts back to the organisations responsible and empowered to do so, freeing up councils to get on with building the homes we need to boost our local economies.

The Prime Minister and Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps were  given a tour of the District Energy Centre in King’s Cross, London earlier this year

Last night Government sources vowed that Housing Secretary Michael Gove would find a ‘legislative fix’ to the problem of water pollution caused by new homes

‘Nobody wants to see pollution in our rivers and estuaries. But the moratorium on housebuilding caused by Natural England’s guidance on nutrient pollution has created severe local difficulties without any meaningful environmental benefit. 

‘Put simply, not building new homes is doing nothing to clean up our rivers and does very little to slow the increase in water pollution.’

Last night Government sources vowed that Housing Secretary Michael Gove would find a ‘legislative fix’ to the problem.

‘We can’t have thousands of homes across the country being held up by EU red tape,’ an insider said.

Natural England began telling some local authorities in 2018 that they could not approve new developments if they led to higher levels of phosphates and nitrates in waterways, in the wake of an EU court case.

In March 2022 it widened the advice to cover a total of 74 areas across England, prompting developers to estimate it had stopped as many as 120,000 new homes being built.

A cross-party group has piled on the pressure to intervene and force Natural England to axe its guidance on so-called ‘nutrient neutrality’, warning it has ‘effectively stopped housebuilding’

Developers and councils can pay for ‘mitigation activities’ such as creating new woods or wetland to balance out extra pollution from developments that are allowed.

But the council leaders – led by Cllr John Fuller of South Norfolk District Council – say this is adding to the costs of families desperate to get on the housing ladder.

‘As a result of the mitigation packages being implemented by a range of councils, new homes are typically £4,000 to £10,000 more expensive for first-time buyers and other local people who desperately need good, affordable housing,’ they warn.

One council, in Eastleigh, Hants, has had to spend more than £20m on addressing nutrient neutrality, which the town hall leaders say should be the responsibility of environmental bodies and water companies.

READ MORE: Red light for Tories’ costly green pledges – ministers begin axing environmental measures as Michael Gove says tackling climate change isn’t a ‘crusade’ 

And across Norfolk they say 41,000 homes have been put on hold, with the result that local builders’ merchants have laid off staff and ‘smaller family builders are at risk of bankruptcy as land with outline permission is stalled’.

But Natural England chairman Tony Juniper insisted: ‘Nutrient neutrality is established in UK environmental law and has been tested in the courts – it rightly prevents wastewater from new housing developments adding to pollution in areas internationally protected because of their unique value to nature and wildlife.

‘Rather than a blocker to homebuilding, Natural England is working in partnership with developers and planning authorities to create compensatory measures, including new wetlands, to mitigate the nutrient load caused by sewage from new developments and allowing housebuilding to go ahead.’

A Government spokesman said: ‘The Government remains committed to delivering housing in areas impacted by nutrient neutrality and is supporting local authorities and developers.

‘We recognise the urgency of this issue and have taken substantial steps to both unlock housing now and to address the underlying causes of nutrient pollution at source.’

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