Using our Brexit Freedoms to build 100,000 new homes

 Briefing from central office which I've decided to copy in full because I suspect not many people even knew about the 'Nutrient neutrality' EU rule.

Plus Labour's flawed plans.

Now that we are FREE from EU....

• EU rules are misguided and overbearing, blocking new homes without addressing the underlying cause of pollution. New homes only make a very small contribution to nutrients entering our rivers and household wastewater is a minor contributor to the nutrients problem. Our own rules mean new homes will be the greenest ever, and new developments will be required by law to improve biodiversity by 10 per cent.

EU rules meant 62 areas across England had new restrictions blocking development imposed on them, blocking new homes and putting small builders out of business. Rules imposed by unelected European judges meant Natural England was forced to issue guidance to 62 local authority areas, including Somerset, Norfolk, Teesside, Kent, Wiltshire and the Solent, mandating that new developments must be ‘nutrient neutral’. These rules are particularly burdensome for small local builders. Existing planning decisions are being overturned by these EU rules and their ECJ interpretation, which are riding roughshod over the desires of local communities. The Home Builders Federation estimate 145,000 homes have already been affected by these rules, with families prevented from making extensions to their homes, new brownfield high street regeneration stalled, and new care homes and hotels blocked.

• Concerns have been raised by environmental campaigners and council leaders from all political parties – these rules are clearly not working in the British interest. Council leaders called for an ‘end the moratorium on housebuilding’ in their areas which ‘created severe local difficulties without any meaningful benefit’. Environmental campaigners called the restrictions ‘absolutely insane’.  

Govt plan will unlock over 100,000 new homes while actually tackling the sources of nutrient pollution:

• Reforming EU ‘nutrient neutrality’ laws will unlock over 100,000 new homes by 2030, boost the economy by up to £18 billion and support 50,000 jobs. The Government’s amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will be debated in the House of Lords shortly. Our plan will not come at the expense of the environment, which is why we are:
  
  
• Introducing new laws to drive significant investment from water companies to upgrade wastewater treatment works to the highest technical standards by 2030, reducing nutrients entering the water from new development.
  
  
• Doubling our commitment to continue supporting nature-based solutions, with £280 million to reduce nutrient levels where it is most needed. The funding means that any additional nutrients from these 100,000 homes between now and 2030 will be more than offset in full. This will fund innovative technologies such as those being trialled in Somerset to pull pollution out of wastewater and new wetlands and nature-based solutions that help absorb nutrients before they enter our waterways. We will work with the major housing developers so they make an appropriate contribution to the scheme. 
  
  
• Supporting farmers to produce food more sustainably. We are investing £200 million in grants into slurry infrastructure to reduce nutrient run off into rivers, and conducting 4,000 inspections on farms each year, making sure that slurry and other pollutants are being handled correctly. We are also investing £25 million to drive innovation in farming to help farmers manage plant and soil nutrients more efficiently, cutting input costs and pollution.
  
  
• Committing to develop Protected Sites Strategies to boost nature in the areas most impacted by nutrient neutrality and with the most acute housing pressures. These bespoke strategies will identify tangible action needed to restore habitats, species, and geodiversity, while reducing pollution at source, for example through nature-based solutions such as wetlands. 
  
  
• Introducing payment premiums into our environmental land management schemes in 2024, accelerating the take up of options, including those that provide benefits for water quality.
  
  
• Developing a River Wye action plan this Autumn, to tackle the unique issues in Herefordshire.
  
  
• Ensuring new homes do not place undue stress on already stressed local water networks through new requirements where needed for Sustainable Drainage Solutions, reducing pressure on storm overflows from new homes and flood risk.

This builds on our strong record on housing and the environment:

• Delivered almost 2.3 million homes since 2010, giving millions of people the opportunity of homeownership. Between 1997 and 2010, average housing delivery was 168,000 a year. We have increased this to 193,000 a year since 2010, despite the legacy of Labour’s recession. Government schemes including Right to Buy and Help to Buy have helped over 849,000 people onto the property ladder.

• On track to meet our manifesto commitment of one million homes over this Parliament. Our new housing plan announced last month will ensure more homes are built in the right places, supported by the right infrastructure – in inner cities and globally renowned hubs like London and Cambridge. 

• Plan for Water will secure clean and plentiful water, for people, for business and for nature, now and for generations to come. We are accelerating £2.2 billion in infrastructure investments for storm overflow management and drought resilience, introducing unlimited penalties for polluters, increasing investment in slurry infrastructure, consulting on banning wet wipes with plastic, making the target for storm overflow management legally binding, and working with local communities to clean up their rivers.

Labour’s plans will result in uncontrolled sprawl and the destruction of our beautiful countryside:

• Labour will concrete over the countryside in an assault on our precious green belt. Lisa Nandy said Labour will ‘declassify … Green Belt’ land. The Conservatives are prioritising the building of new homes on brownfield land, giving voices to local communities and safeguarding green spaces (Keir Starmer, Speech, 6 July 2023, link; Sky News, 17 May 2023, link).

• Labour’s housing plan will cost the taxpayer more than £70 billion, stoking inflation and pushing up interest rates. Lisa Nandy promised that social housing would overtake the private renting sector as the second-largest tenure. This would need the delivery of over 400,000 homes, costing over £70 billion (The Daily Mail, 25 July 2023, link).

• The Labour London Mayor’s anti-housing policies are encouraging suburban sprawl and increasing pressure on the countryside. Just 21,000 new homes were started in the capital last year, less than a third of the new homes the Labour Mayor’s own plan identified a need for. Sadiq Khan is prioritising the delivery of warehouses over new family homes in central London, increasing the pressure to build on green spaces (Sky News, 27 July 2023, link).

• Labour oversaw the lowest level of housebuilding since the 1920s and the number of first-time buyers plummeting. In 1997 there were 501,500 first-time buyers. By 2009 this had fallen to 196,700, a reduction of 61 per cent. In 2008-09, under the last Labour government, only 75,000 new homes were started. This marked the lowest level of housebuilding since the 1920s (DCLG, House Building: September Quarter 2013 England, 21 November 2013, link; Holmans, A., Historical Statistics of British Housing, 2005, link).

• Labour is allowing far more sewage to be discharged in Wales. Water policy is devolved, and in Wales in 2022, the average number of spills per overflow was 38.3 compared to 23.0 in England (Welsh Water, 31 March 2023, link).