National Park warns scrapping of environmental protections may impact birds

Ministers claimed yesterday that the scrapping of what it called “defective EU laws” will allow for the building of an additional 100,000 homes in England by 2030, and suggested that construction could begin in “a matter of months”.

Under current rules, nutrient neutrality requires local authorities to adhere to Natural England guidance on new developments meaning developers must demonstrate and fund the mitigation of the pollution.

Last night, the North York Moors National Park Authority warned that important land on the coast could impact the area’s birdlife.

A spokesperson said that a potential reduction in environmental protection, which will see ministers attempt to push through Parliament as part of its Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, is “clearly a cause of concern to us and should be to everyone”.

“Although this impacts mostly on the coastal sites and the rivers feeding into them, there is a direct link between our National Park’s important bird life and the surrounding coastal areas which provide important feeding grounds for our wonderful moorland waders such as Golden Plover, Curlew and Lapwing.”

Environmental groups described the move as a victory for housebuilders but a “disaster” for the environment.

The Angling Trust yesterday said that the decision to ditch nutrient neutrality rules put in place in 2017 to stop the impact of phosphates and nitrates from polluting rivers was a “builders charter to pollute”.

Martin Salter, policy lead at the Angling Trust, said: “Politics is about choices and the government have chosen to side with the polluters rather than maintain vital protections for our beleaguered rivers and watercourses.

“Of course, if they were actually serious about their pledge to be ‘the greenest government ever’ our woefully inadequate sewage treatment works would have already been upgraded and would be more than capable of processing the additional flows from new housing schemes to a standard acceptable in a modern country.”

The announcement will also see the financial burden to mitigate nutrient pollution for new housing shifted away from housing developers and onto the taxpayers, though the Government said that it will work with industry leaders to make a fair contribution from its larger developers.

In addition, it announced that it would double the current investment in its nutrient mitigation scheme run by Natural England to £280 million.

Michael Gove, the Housing Secretary said: “We are committed to building the homes this country needs and to enhancing our environment. The way EU rules have been applied has held us back. These changes will provide a multibillion-pound boost for the UK economy and see us build more than 100,000 new homes.

“Protecting the environment is paramount which is why the measures we’re announcing today will allow us to go further to protect and restore our precious waterways whilst still building the much-needed homes this country needs.

“We will work closely with environmental agencies and councils as we deliver these changes.”

Labour’s shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy said: “With housebuilding projected to fall to the lowest level since World War Two and our rivers full of sewage, the Conservatives are failing on both housing and the environment.

“The Government is responsible for environmental policy; housebuilders should not be asked to cover for their abject failure."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​