Green groups have lashed out at the government’s plans to boost housebuilding by scrapping water protection laws.
Richard Benwell of Wildlife and Countryside Link said scrapping the nutrient neutrality requirement “would expose England’s most sensitive rivers to yet more pollution” and “undermine our most vital nature laws”.
Instead, ministers have said they will increase funding for mitigation by £140m to £280m.
“This is a licence from the government for the commercial housebuilding lobby to profit from the pollution of our rivers,” said Craig Bennett, chief executive at the Wildlife Trusts. “Vague offers of money as compensation are not the same as a legislative requirement.”
Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace, said the government had “spectacularly failed” to make water firms and housebuilders “invest their profits in upgrading treatment plants and pipes to a standard that a modern, functional country would expect”.
Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for levelling up, said: “With housebuilding projected to fall to the lowest level since World War II and our rivers full of sewage, the Conservatives are failing on both housing and the environment.”
