Whatever the problem, the solution always seems to be building fewer houses
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThe rules that have paralysed house-building in Herefordshire are designed to protect rivers and wetlands. Nutrient neutrality means that no development likely to draw people to an area, from a new home to a campsite, can be approved if it will result in more nitrates or phosphates entering a protected river. That is a severe limitation, since water-treatment plants do not remove all pollutants before discharging into rivers.
The problem that the rules seek to tackle is real. Britain’s air is much cleaner than it was, its greenhouse-gas emissions far lower, but its rivers are as polluted as ever. Only a third are rated good or better by environment agencies, a proportion that has not changed for a decade. The number of salmon and trout caught in British rivers in 2019 was the lowest for at least 25 years, although pollution is not the only reason.
It is a neat solution. But Alex Rennie, the leader of Havant Borough Council, says that it could have an unfortunate effect on the housing market around the Solent. A builder who wants to erect new homes on farmland may have to buy fewer credits than somebody who is trying to build on urban wasteland, because obliterating farmland reduces pollution, which is counted in the developer’s favour.
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