UK

Taxpayers to foot bill for green schemes as Michael Gove rips up EU rules on new housing


Emma Gatten
Tue, 29 August 2023 

Ministers will give Natural England millions of pounds to reduce run-off from agriculture and to upgrade waste-water treatment works to protect rivers - Natural England/Environment Agency/SWNS

Taxpayers will foot the bill for green schemes to reduce water pollution from new homes, the Telegraph understands.

Michael Gove, the Levelling-Up Secretary, announced on Tuesday he will scrap rules imposed by Brussels which had forced housebuilders to pay for projects to reduce river pollution before homes could be built.

The rules are designed to limit the amount of harmful chemicals coming from new homes that make their way into rivers, affecting wildlife.

The government blames them for blocking the provision of new housing, even where planning permission is granted, and by scrapping them hopes to enable 100,000 more homes to be built by 2030.

To protect rivers, ministers will instead give the quango Natural England millions of pounds to reduce run-off from agriculture and upgrade waste-water treatment works.

Taxpayers will be expected to foot the bill for the extra £140 million funding, although the Government hopes to eventually claw it back from housebuilders.

A Government source said it would be “talking to developers about their contribution” but was not yet sure how much housebuilders would contribute.
Backtracking on its green pledges

The announcement was met with anger from environmental campaigners, who accused the Government of backtracking on its green pledges.

But the Government says the contribution made by new homes to the problem is very small compared to that from agriculture and existing sewage infrastructure.

Housebuilders are resisting calls for them to pay into the scheme, saying it would be yet another tax raid on big developers, following the £300 million fund to resolve the cladding crisis and the recent tax on residential property developers.

“The industry is not going to be happy about yet another tax bill from Gove,” one source said. “But at least now there is a solution to the nutrients problem.”

Mr Gove defended the plans to get rid of the so-called ‘nutrient neutrality’ rules on Tuesday following anger from green groups. He told the BBC: “After all the measures we’ve announced today have been enacted there will be fewer nutrients going into British rivers.”

He added: “The way in which we’ve been dealing with it, as a result of some sort of clunky EU laws, has meant that we haven’t secured the investment that we needed to improve our environment and we’ve also got a total block on housing in large parts of the country.”

Ministers hope the new plans will deliver an estimated £18 billion boost to the economy, with the construction of new homes, which would otherwise have been blocked in a matter of months.

New environmental measures

The move comes alongside new environmental measures designed to tackle pollution at source and restore habitats.

But nature groups said scrapping the rules would only increase harm to the country’s rivers, which are under significant pressure from sewage and agriculture.

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “In May, June and July, the Government made promises to the British people and to Parliament that they would not lower environmental protections or standards

“But just a few weeks later they are planning to do precisely the opposite. They lied – this is a disgraceful move which undermines public trust in this Government.

“Make no mistake – this is a licence from the Government for the commercial housebuilding lobby to profit from the pollution of our rivers.”

Gabriel Connor-Streich, the chief executive of Greenshank Environmental, which develops river improvement projects for housebuilders to invest in, said many were likely to be cancelled in the wake of the announcement.

“They’re not going to continue now until they have certainty that there is actually going to be a market sell into,” he said.

Stewart Baseley, the executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation, said: “Today’s very welcome announcement has the potential to unlock housing delivery across the country, from Cornwall to the Tees Valley, where housebuilding has been blocked despite wide acknowledgement that occupants of new homes are responsible for only a tiny fraction of the wastewater finding its ways into rivers and streams.

“The industry is eager to play its part in delivering mitigation and protecting our waterways. We look forward to engaging with Government on the right way to do so, now that ministers are acting upon the arguments that builders both large and small have been making for so long.”