Nutrient neutrality rules are a legacy from the European Union that obstruct building in local authorities in areas with protected habitats and high levels of nutrient pollution, for example caused by fertiliser.
In a joint op-ed for The Times in 2023 with Steve Reed (now Secretary of State of Environment, the department which sponsors Natural England), Ms Rayner argued that a better way to tackle nutrient neutrality rules would be for the Government to direct local authorities to approve planning applications held up by nutrient neutrality rules, but require developers to offset nutrient harms before the homes were occupied.
But planning experts have warned that Ms Rayner will have to go much further than this if Labour wants to achieve its manifesto promise. Making developers offset at a later date would be an “unworkable” policy that would fail to boost building, Mr Stoddart said.
“I can’t imagine many housebuilders are going to spend many millions of pounds to build a scheme and not have a solution to it that could delay its occupation. That feels like an awful lot of risk and I can’t imagine you could borrow much money to do it,” he said.
Labour’s target of building 1.5 million homes over the coming five years will be undeliverable without major reform of these environmental regulations, he added.
Since a 2018 EU Court of Justice ruling, Natural England has issued advice to 74 local authorities in England that new developments should only be approved if they are “nutrient neutral”. This has become a major roadblock to development. The affected local authorities are primarily concentrated in the countryside, including Exmoor National Park, the New Forest, South Somerset, Cornwall, Dorset and Vale of the White Horse in Oxfordshire. Several affected constituencies have traditionally been Tory heartlands.
“Nutrients” refers primarily to nitrates and phosphates, which are found naturally but are also in bigger concentrations in fertilisers. If levels are too high, they cause dangerous algae blooms in rivers and lakes.
In places where nutrients levels are already too high, Natural England is worried that additional wastewater from housing developments will make this worse. But housebuilders have warned that continuing to enforce these rules would undermine Labour’s manifesto pledge to unlock the planning system and massively ramp up housebuilding.
Nutrient neutrality rules have so far blocked 160,000 homes from being built in England and will continue to prevent a further 16,500 each year that the rules remain in place, according to the Home Builders Federation (HBF). This will be a total of 242,500 unbuilt properties over the course of this parliament.