Urgent need to find ways to manage planning impacts of nutrient neutrality

In March this year, Natural England wrote to 42 Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) as well as the existing 32 LPAs already identified to outline its views on an issue which is set to have a significant impact on the ways and speed in which applications progress through the planning system. 

The concept of ‘nutrient neutrality’ requires that additional nutrient loads should be avoided in rivers, estuaries and wetlands or mitigated as part of the design of new developments in order to prevent further environmental issues to designated sites within a defined catchment area from which rainfall flows into a river, lake, or reservoir.

Achieving nutrient neutrality usually requires either onsite treatment of wastewater and surface water run-off, or offsetting of any increase in nutrient loading by converting land on- or offsite by planting new woodlands or creating wetlands. 

While this goal is naturally to be lauded from an environmental protection impact point of view, the practical impact of this unexpected communication has been an immediate brake on a range of residential developments that are currently within the planning application process. 

Natural England’s role as a statutory consultee on new developments means any objections that it raises on grounds of nutrient neutrality are likely to heighten the risk of planning decisions being delayed and subject to either a ministerial call-in or legal challenge. 

With this seemingly in mind, North Norfolk District Council has, for example, said that ‘until these matters are resolved, the Council will not be able to grant planning permission for developments comprising overnight accommodation within the affected catchments’ and other LPAs are taking a similar view. 

This situation is almost certainly going to halt many developers’ investment decisions when they know that any application they submit is not going to go anywhere quickly, thus meaning that achieving the UK government’s challenging goals for housebuilding even more difficult to reach. 

Natural England’s advice on nutrient neutrality is designed ‘to help local planners and developers tackle two challenges that can sometimes be seen as in competition – building the homes the country needs while also protecting and restoring nature’ as part of a sustainable green recovery. 

But while a tool has been provided to help developers access the potential for nutrient pollution in key areas, what isn’t yet available is an agreed mechanism that can be used to properly assess and overcome any nutrient load issues that become apparent during the development process. 

A further constraint to consider is that the issue applies to the whole of the catchment area in an identified location, which can stretch many miles inland from the mainly coastal and estuary areas that these measures appear designed to protect. 

And from a residential developer’s point of view, the added irony is that the biggest contributor to increased nutrient loads is acknowledged to be established farming and industry, rather than new housing, yet there is neither any reference to this in the new announcement nor any plans for mitigation. 

A recent ministerial statement has tasked water and sewerage companies in England with upgrading wastewater treatment works to the highest technically achievable limits by 2030 in areas where nutrient neutrality is an issue. 

While this is a very positive step for the medium/long term, it doesn’t assist planning applications currently being considered in these locations, or indeed for the rest of the decade. 

The government appears to be supporting local authorities in not penalising them for under delivery, rather than urgently tackling the issue to boost the supply of housing across the country, an approach which seems to conflict with its longstanding commitment to tackle the under-supply of housing in England by building 300,000 new homes per year.  

Nutrient neutrality is likely to be an issue which eventually impacts on every planning authority in England, and what’s needed now is for all interested parties in the public and private sectors to take a collaborative approach to overcoming it as quickly as possible by finding ways through which impacts can be assessed and overcome. 

By coming together and looking for solutions, everyone involved with the development industry can make their voices heard and contribute to finding the solutions that we all want to see.