A report by the House of Lords Built Environment Committee estimated that around 45,000 new homes per year may not be delivered due to recent Natural England advice on nutrient, water and recreational applications.
The government recently tabled an amendment to change nutrient neutrality laws to unblock development but this was voted down by the House of Lords.
The report said that it should be possible to deliver both new development and meet environmental goals but a lack of strong leadership and comprehensive strategy was hampering this.
The committee said that the pollution of water courses had origins in poor agricultural practices as well as sub-standard sewer management but the burden had fallen on housing, especially on new housing, to rectify the problem.
The report said that government was “failing to provide sufficient support for smaller developers” and that the “effective moratoria” on housebuilding due to nutrient and water neutrality risk was putting smaller developers out of business in same areas.
It called for all public sector development mitigation schemes to prioritise provision for small and medium-sized developers.
The committee added that developers had been “disproportionately burdened” to deliver biodiversity net gain, brownfield development was “stymied” by planning permissions and permitting and communication and guidance to developers was “often unclear or lacking”.
The report said that the Department for Levelling Up should review planning and permitting requirements for brownfield land to “eliminate overlap” and the government should “meaningfully consult” with local planning authorities.
The committee added that there was evidence of “unresponsiveness, time-consuming duplication, delay and overlapping responsibilities” in some government departments, Natural England and the Environment Agency.
It called for housebuilding targets to be given “statutory weight” therefore giving them equal status to environmental goals.
‘Not protecting or improving environment’
The committee noted that the current approach was “not effectively protecting or improving the environment”.
“Local habitats and species are not fully understood or considered in the round, isolated pockets of mitigation are not addressing system-wide pollution or the ingrained impact of historic decisions,” it explained.
The report said that there was a lack of managed credit-purchase mitigation schemes for specific pollutants or select areas and this was limiting developers’ ability to gain planning permission.
It said that mitigation networks should be created to “share expertise and learning between affected local planning authorities”.
Bravery needed in planning
Lord Moylan, chair of the Built Environment Committee, said: “The current approach to managing any conflict between new homes and the needs of the environment is failing to deliver for either side.
“Our inquiry found that the achievement of the government’s housing and environmental policies has been hampered and sometimes completely blocked by lack of coordination in policy-making and haphazard and unbalanced implementation.”
He continued: “There is no way the government can deliver on its housebuilding targets unless it is brave and displays the political leadership necessary to deliver and implement a comprehensive strategy for both development and the environment.
“A good starting point would be to give housebuilding statutory weight which would ensure it has equal status with environmental goals. After that, coherent, cross-government plans should be developed to address major pollutants and to ensure that money is expended where it will have the most impact.”
