<p>The industry is waiting to hear what the government will do next to address nutrient neutrality, after its plans to scrap nutrient neutrality rules were defeated in the House of Lords last week, the Home Builders Federation’s James Stevens said today (September 20).</p> <p>Speaking at HBF’s Planning Conference in Birmingham, Stevens, HBF’s director for cities, said that after the “hammering” the government’s amendments to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB) received in parliament - the proposals voted down by the Labour party, a group of Conservatives and other parties - it had “less appetite” to seek its changes through the current legislative route.</p> <p>He noted it was likely ministers had “run out of parliamentary time”. And parliamentary procedure would not allow the amendments to be reintroduced in the House of Commons as part of the LURB’s final movements.</p> <p>“We were hoping the amendments would go through,” James stated. “But we were never naïve about the difficulties the government would have in getting them through.” He said the government should “perhaps” have chosen a different route to rectifying the neutrality problem.</p> <p>The Labour party had “nailed their colours to the mast” in opposing the government’s plans, Stevens said. Labour “thought …