Housebuilders have welcomed the government’s plan to speed up development by changing environmental pollution rules. The move could boost sales within the new build sector for glazing and related construction businesses.
Currently, developers are restricted from adding more pollution to already-polluted protected areas. Instead, the government plans to increase investment in Natural England’s nutrient mitigation scheme, to offset the building up to 100,000 new homes between now and 2030.
“Alongside plans to mitigate the relatively limited impact of new build housing, we welcome the further commitment to tackling nutrient pollution at source,” said David Thomas, chief executive of Barratt Developments. The company has reportedly had 2,500 new home projects stalled due to nutrient neutrality rules.
For smaller housebuilders like Story Homes, the plan unlocks more than 4,000 housebuilding projects, the business’ chief executive has reported, creating “a huge boost for the local economies and supply chains, all whilst facilitating delivery of much-needed housing”.
According to Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy for the National Federation of Builders, if the government’s changes go ahead, local authorities would still decide whether developers should contribute to cleaning up the environment. He welcomed the funding for nutrient mitigation but argued for a more adaptable system.
The government’s more relaxed stance about environmental pollution means that builders could “bring forward otherwise stalled investment in communities and get spades in the ground,” added Stewart Baseley, chair of the Home Builders Federation (HBF). Research commissioned by the HBF found that an estimated 145,000 planned home projects were stalled since the EU court ruling about river nutrient neutrality in 2018.
Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK, told the Guardian: “Instead of allowing housebuilders 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. But that would require them to do what they’ve spectacularly failed to do so far – forcing water firms and housebuilders to invest their profits in upgrading treatment plants and pipes to a standard that a modern, functional country would expect.”
