<p>Housebuilders may be forced to pay a “fresh air” charge on thousands of new homes in Dorset as part of an English Nature (EN) “mitigation strategy” to protect the Dorset Heathlands Special Protection Area. Several councils in the area including Poole, East Dorset and Christchurch temporarily stopped approving new applications citing EN policy objecting to any development within 5km of the protected heathland as its reason, affecting up to 2,000 homes planned for development in the area each year.</p> <p>But following uproar in the local housebuilding community, EN issued a guidance note agreeing that councils could continue to deal with planning applications while a “mitigation strategy,”which could include a “fresh air tax,”was worked out. Stirling Wilson, director of local housebuilder Mainsail, said: “Anything within the 5km zone around the protected area would be subject to a ‘fresh air’ tax to pay for wardens and additional public space. </p> <p>The value of it isn’t clear but I’ve never had to pay for fresh air before.” Echoing the predicament of developers operating near the Thames Basin Heaths in Surrey, Wilson said the situation in Dorset threatened many local housebuilders’ businesses. “If applications are refused or unfairly high charges are put on developments …