Labour Eyes Changing UK Pollution Rules to Unlock Housebuilding
(Bloomberg) -- The UK’s new Labour government will meet with environmental groups on Wednesday as it seeks to broker a way to unblock planning projects currently prevented by anti-pollution rules and deliver on a promised 1.5 million new homes this Parliament.
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The party — in power for less than three weeks — is seeking to review so-called nutrient neutrality rules, despite having opposed the Conservatives’ efforts to scrap them while Labour was in opposition, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity discussing unannounced plans.
At stake is Labour’s strategy of stimulating growth by getting the UK building again, and also the health of the country’s waterways. The European Union-era rules require developers to mitigate river pollution caused by new construction projects, and according to the former Tory administration are responsible for putting on hold the development of about 100,000 properties at present.
“The status quo is not working,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Environment Secretary Steve Reed wrote to environmental leaders in their invitation to Wednesday’s meeting. “Our vision is for a better planning system that will unlock the housing and infrastructure this country urgently needs whilst improving outcomes for nature.”
Reed and Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook will host the meeting, to discuss how they can unlock the planning system while protecting the environment. The new government will not scrap the environmental rules altogether, but will pursue an approach that allows pollution mitigation to take place alongside development, the people said.
Environmental groups are nervous about the potential impact of Labour’s planning changes, and the meeting comes after pushing for a dialog with Labour on the issue for months, including when the party was in opposition. But figures from the sector told Bloomberg there is a willingness to lift heads up above individual battles, to support measures that accelerate housebuilding and, in particular, new green infrastructure.
“We’re delighted to see the approach of the new government in setting out the ambition of doing ‘both, and:’ both nature recovery and housebuilding rather than trying to choose between the two,” Tony Juniper, chairman of Natural England, which advises the government on the environment, told BBC radio on Tuesday.
Government figures said the round table was a statement of intent, and a demonstration of its willingness to engage with the sector. One option on the table — a proposal by Wildlife and Countryside Link — is the creation of a ‘National Strategic Mitigation Pot,’ a fund which developers would pay into to finance measures that offset pollution. If accepted by the government, it would keep environmental groups happy by allowing building to proceed while keeping nutrient neutrality rules in place.
That plan — which has been trialled locally before — would require an initial injection of funding from the government, before developers began contributing.
In a briefing document accompanying last week’s King’s Speech, setting out the new administration’s legislative program, the government wrote that it will use development “to fund nature recovery where currently both are stalled, unlocking a win-win outcome for the economy and for nature”.
The government promised to consult with the sector over the summer. “We will only act in legislation where we can confirm to Parliament that the steps we are taking will deliver positive environmental outcomes,” according to the document. Rayner and Reed published a separate open letter to the sector over the weekend with similar reassurance.
“This isn’t about changing the rules as I’ve understood what he new government is saying; it’s about changing the delivery pathway,” Juniper said. “If we are serious about achieving nature recovery, we can’t diminish the protections. But what we can do is achieve those protections and go beyond them in ways that are quicker and more efficient.”
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