New measures are in the pipeline to unlock the development of thousands of homes held up by nutrient neutrality rules.

They are included in a new working paper from the government – ‘Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery’ – ahead of the introduction of its Planning and Infrastructure Bill in early 2025.

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has estimated that there are more than 100,000 residential properties held up in the planning system nationwide due to nutrient neutrality considerations. They include many in Dorset, the South and South East.

Although there have been measures to enable housing development, such as the Poole Harbour Nutrient Mitigation Scheme, nutrient neutrality has remained a thorny issue.

The government claims its proposed measures will create a ‘win-win’ for nature and the economy.

It states that the new rules will ‘focus on driving up environmental outcomes over rigid processes that block and delay development, with developers able to pay into a fund for improvements to nature as a quicker and simpler way of meeting their environmental obligations’.

The proposals include a new Nature Restoration Fund. Developers will be able to pay into the fund, allowing building to proceed immediately, while a delivery body, such as Natural England, will take responsibility for ‘securing positive environmental outcomes’.

For example, this could be ‘delivering a reduction in nutrient pollution affecting the water environment or securing habitats to increase the population of a protected species’.

According to the government, this means that developers won’t have to pay for individual site level assessments for matters covered by the Nature Restoration Fund and will no longer have to deliver mitigation needed.

Instead, the delivery body will take the actions needed to drive nature recovery at a strategic, not site-by-site, level.

Under the new approach, delivery plans for nutrient mitigation operating at catchment scale may be set up for a more strategic and effective impact.

Individual developers would be able to access an online map, in advance of submitting their planning application, to confirm that the catchment is covered by a delivery plan. They would also be able to access a breakdown of the required contribution.

The aim is to free up and accelerate development while ensuring better environmental outcomes.

The proposals are set out in detail in the working paper. Interested parties are being invited to give their views.

Any measures which reduce risk and provide greater certainty for developers, ultimately delivering more new homes, are to be welcomed as long as they do not result in more cost and red tape.

We will analyse the working paper in detail before giving our response to government.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team to find how the changes in nutrient neutrality measures will affect your plans or project.

(Picture: Pixabay)