A route map to relieving planning bids log-jam
AS many people will know, development in Somerset has been severely hampered by the legal requirement for Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) to require all new development in the area to be “phosphate neutral”. This is a major challenge and has arisen because the water quality of the internationally important “Ramsar sites” on the Somerset Levels has been identified as being unfavourable because of high phosphate levels.
In practical terms, what this means is that developers have to find a solution that either fixes or removes the amount of phosphates that will be produced by the water emanating from their development. To do this, a developer must conduct an ‘Appropriate Assessment’ (AA) as part of the Habitat Regulations Assessments (HRAs) before the LPA will grant planning permission.
Natural England (NE) advises that an LPA must have practical certainty that the nutrient neutrality measures, relied on in an AA, will be implemented and in place at the relevant time. This means the developer has to have negotiated a credible arrangement that is secured with a private landowner and funded for the lifetime of the development’s effects which may be for a period of 120 years in the case of a housing development. As a result, development is being hampered in Somerset and in many other local authorities across the country.
In response to this the Government responded by making a number of amendments to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill which will see the onus to tackle the nutrient neutrality problem switched from developers to the water companies. Under the Government’s proposals, the water companies will be required to upgrade wastewater treatment works which discharge to the protected watercourses to ensure that effluent is within acceptable limits. The deadline for upgrading is April 1 2030 and it is anticipated that this will be factored into any HRAs, thereby reducing, or eliminating, in time, the need for additional mitigation through the purchase of Nutrient Credits or other measures.
At present developers have been tackling this problem by doing deals with private landowners whereby the management of agricultural land is changed to reduce phosphate emissions in order to create a number of phosphate credits which can be ascribed to a development so that nutrient neutrality is maintained. This is very often a complicated and time-consuming process.
The Government has made it clear that such private arrangements can continue and will exist alongside a new Nutrient Mitigation Scheme (NMS) which was also announced last week.
Defra will provide initial funding for the new NMS to establish wetlands and woodlands which will lead to the creation of Nutrient Mitigation Credits (NMCs) accredited by Natural England which developers will be able to purchase.
It is understood feasibility studies are being conducted in five catchments to identify the next tranche of mitigation sites and landowners will be approached from next month to invite them to offer land as potential sites for nutrient mitigation. It is not clear whether the Somerset Levels has been identified as one of those catchments.
However, the Government’s latest announcement starts to provide a route map to relieving the log-jam in planning applications which has affected many areas across the country, although I suspect this will not be such welcome news for shareholders of water companies.
■ James Stephen. Carter Jonas