Govt will not tackle nutrients through legislation

The government will not pursue further primary legislative routes to tackle nutrient neutrality, it confirmed in an update today (December 20).

After the levelling up secretary Michael Gove stated yesterday (December 19) that the government was unable to scrap nutrient neutrality rules before the general election, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has given details of the measures it is taking to “unlock” homes trapped by neutrality requirements.

At the same time, it has conceded that primary legislation is the only effective way to quickly unblock the homes affected by nutrient neutrality, and that current and planned measures may not be enough to release all impacted dwellings.

In the short term, Natural England will continue to undertake its £30 million Nutrient Mitigation Scheme, according to the environment secretary’s direction of July 28.

DLUHC said the scheme would be expanded to other affected catchment areas “in the coming months” following provision in the Tees and Cleveland Coast catchment amounting to nutrient mitigation credits for 4,200 new homes.

DLUHC also pointed to its £110 million Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund, announced in the Autumn Statement, under which it has now confirmed the first £57 million …