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ARTICLE · 07 SEPTEMBER 2023

Nutrient Neutrality, We Hardly Knew Ye

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Before they tip their hard hats to the housing secretary, who last week announced plans to abolish unpopular nutrient neutrality (NN) rules, housebuilders and developers should be mindful of the growing...

United KingdomEnvironment
Henry Vane
Henry Vane

Before they tip their hard hats to the housing secretary, who last week announced plans to abolish unpopular nutrient neutrality (NN) rules, housebuilders and developers should be mindful of the growing challenges around environmental regulation that the change presents.

Introduced in 2017, NN rules were designed to stop pollution caused by increased nutrients in rivers speeding up the growth of plants and upsetting ecosystems. Sewage and waste water typically lead to nutrient increase (mainly phosphates and nitrates), hence the focus on house building and development. In river catchments with high nutrient content (equating to around a quarter of local authorities in England), builders had to show as part of the planning consent that their development caused no net nutrient increase. This could be done either on site (creating wetlands or installing better sewage treatment) or off site (buying credits). The Government says abolishing NN rules will "unblock" 100,000

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