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Water pollution rules expected to be weakened by the Government today

Today, the Government is expected to announce a process for weakening the legislation on water pollution to allow more housebuilding. Rivers – already under huge pressure from sewage and farm pollution – are likely to become even more polluted as a result.

Currently, England’s most fragile rivers have some protection under the Habitats Regulations. These rules have led to a requirement for “nutrient neutrality” which means a new housing development in a river catchment must not result in an increase of damaging phosphates and other nutrients into the river. 

Developers are currently required to invest in new wetlands and other measures such as planting trees to create buffer zones in order to achieve this target of ensuring that no additional pressure is put on waterways that are already suffering from an overload of farm slurry and sewage. 

Otter in river

Luke Massey

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says: 

“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 license from the Government for the commercial housebuilding lobby to profit from the pollution of our rivers. Vague offers of money as compensation are not the same as a legislative requirement – and even the existing rules are extremely modest. 

“The UK is ranked as one of the worst countries in Europe for water quality and the public are rightly outraged at our rivers being used as open sewers by water companies. Scrapping the rules that are merely trying to stop rivers becoming even more polluted will allow vested interests to make more money at the expense of our rivers and the natural environment.   

“The Government has made repeated pledges that they won’t weaken environmental standards and committed just 8 months ago to halve nutrient pollution by the end of the decade. This is another broken promise and makes clear that the Prime Minister would rather look after the interests of developers than the environment – money talks.  

“These rules are about preventing pollution, not housing. Piling on pollution from developers into rivers already suffocating from poo and agriculture pollution, will only mean greater pressure is put on farmers to make bigger and faster cuts to nutrient pollution.” 

Editor's notes

*During the Parliamentary stages of the Retained EU Law Bill the Solicitor General, Michael Tomlinson, said:   

  • “we will not lower environmental protections”. 12th and 21st June 2023  

  • “we will not lower environmental protections or standards”. 24th May 2023  

On 25th July 2023 the Minister, Therese Coffey wrote this letter to the Office for Environmental Protection saying: “We have been clear in Parliament about our commitment to uphold environmental protections.” 

The Wildlife Trusts

The Wildlife Trusts are making the world wilder and helping to ensure that nature is part of everyone’s lives. We are a grassroots movement of 46 charities with more than 910,000 members and 35,000 volunteers. No matter where you are in Britain, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people and saving, protecting and standing up for the natural world. With the support of our members, we care for and restore special places for nature on land and run marine conservation projects and collect vital data on the state of our seas. Every Wildlife Trust works within its local community to inspire people to create a wilder future – from advising thousands of landowners on how to manage their land to benefit wildlife, to connecting hundreds of thousands of school children with nature every year. www.wildlifetrusts.org

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