Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that new homes are built in areas subject to a ban on residential development solely due to a nearby river catchment having excess phosphates in the water; and if he will differentiate developments already the subject of planning applications approvals from proposals not yet submitted.

The Government was very disappointed with the decision of the House of Lords voting against proposals that would have unlocked over 100,000 homes.

Given that they have, the responsible approach is to look at alternative ways in which we can ensure that people still have the opportunity of home ownership and a roof over their heads, whilst still being good stewards of the environment (as, indeed, the legislation was previously trying to do). As a result, we are, for now, focusing on making progress within the existing legal framework, keeping us on track to meet our manifesto commitment to build one million homes over this Parliament. This includes making available £110 million through the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund and to help planning authorities in affected areas deliver tens of thousands more homes before the end of the decade.

Provisions in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act mean that local planning authorities and developers will assume that wastewater treatment work upgrades will be completed by 2030 and should factor that assumption into any relevant decision-making for the purposes of an assessment under the Habitats Regulations. This will benefit both new applications and developments already approved.

Further details of the Government’s measures to address the challenge of nutrient neutrality can be found – www.gov.uk/guidance/nutrient-neutrality-update.