Impact of Environmental Regulations on Development (Built Environment Committee Report)

Lord Best Excerpts

Friday 19th April 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I was honoured to serve on the Built Environment Committee for this inquiry, under the distinguished chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Moylan. I congratulate him on a brilliant opening speech. I also pay tribute to our brilliant clerk, Kate Wallis, and her team, and to Kelvin MacDonald, our special adviser. My remarks in this debate will concentrate specifically on the impact of environmental regulations on the provision of new homes, with a particular emphasis on requirements for water and nutrient neutrality.

Environmental regulation is of course essential, but a heavy-handed imposition of rigid edicts can have devastating consequences. Most prominently, the water and nutrient neutrality requirements have led to a ban on new homebuilding in many areas at just the time when we most need a significant increase in housing production. When environmental regulation trumps the planning system, even contradicting the content of local plans, the consequences can be felt by innocent parties, not least by those who need a home: young households desperate to leave the parental home, older people needing to right-size, and all the rest. The committee argued that government should have as powerful an obligation to achieve its target of extra housing—the national figure of 300,000 homes a year is a reasonable immediate ambition—as it has to protect the natural environment.

Reconciliation between the parallel systems of environmental permits and planning consents is not impossible. Biodiversity net gain—BNG—is being introduced after proper consultation with the relevant parties, with a transition period for implementation and with government support for mitigation measures. BNG rules may need modifications, some of which are in the pipeline, but should lead to a 10% gain in biodiversity for every development, so new housebuilding can actually achieve more biodiversity.

In contrast, the water and nutrient neutrality decision came as a bolt from the blue. It stopped housing development in many areas, even though this adds only a tiny fraction to the pollution going into our rivers. It failed to address the vastly more significant pollution from intensive farming practices and, as we all know, so much of the underlying reason for river pollution lies in the failure of the ineffectually regulated water companies to fulfil their obligations and invest in water treatment.

Moreover, the SME housebuilders, and we need more, not fewer, of these, are taking the biggest hit. They are often ill-equipped to deal with the plethora of planning and permit requirements. Unlike the major housebuilders, they cannot afford specialist consultants to assist in completing all the necessary—and sometimes quite unnecessary— assessments and form-filling. They cannot switch production to a different area because they operate only locally.

What our Select Committee’s report advocates is a balanced approach which considers the underlying causes of environmental problems and seeks to address these fairly, openly and consistently. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Defra, with its agencies, must act jointly and not in opposition. Perhaps the forthcoming national land use framework will help bring things together. At the local level, local planning authorities must have the central role, despite cuts in planning department budgets. Increased planning fees coupled with more efficient models, as in Warwickshire, for sharing expertise and the necessity of having up-to-date local plans can all help. But responsibility comes back to central government and its agencies to engage with all the relevant stakeholders, to provide clear guidance, to introduce new measures only with proper transition periods and to ensure mitigation schemes are in place so that, at the end of the day, environmental improvements work hand in hand with securing much-needed new homebuilding.