Levelling Up Bill promoting traditional nutrient solutions gets Second reading

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill had its Second Reading in the House of Lords last week.

Moved by Baroness Scott of Bybrook, Parliamentary under secretary for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Part 7 of the Bill requires water companies to address nutrient pollution arising from wastewater treatment works by 2030. Baroness Scott said: “This, together with a nutrient mitigation scheme led by Natural England, will reduce the barriers to significant numbers of new homes while creating new and improved wetlands and woodlands, enhancing access to nature, improving the environment and helping to build much-needed homes.”

However, the water industry has criticised the hight financial, chemical and carbon cost – as well as the lost opportunity for multi-benefit solutions – of the Bill’s insistence that nutrient pollution be reduced through grey infrastructure and chemical dosing rather than through an approach inclusive of nature and catchment based solutions such as wetlands and woodlands.

Labour peer Baroness Jones of Whitchurch said during the debate: “On the subject of the nutrient pollution standards in Part 7, we welcome the government’s recognition that action needs to be taken, but the proposals as they stand are insufficiently robust.

"They address only pollution from water treatment works, rather than agricultural runoff which is leaking nitrates and phosphorous into our rivers and seas. They fail to require water companies to use area catchment-based approaches and nature-based solutions, which we know are far more effective and offer greater benefits for biodiversity, and they do not include a clear obligation on water companies to set out and agree with Ofwat their compliance and investment plans to address these issues.”