Wastewater upgrades ordered to unlock nutrient-blocked development

The government is to introduce an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to place a new legal duty on English water and sewerage companies to upgrade wastewater treatment plants in areas of nutrient neutrality to the highest achievable technological levels, by 2030.

The amendment was one of two new policies unveiled by Defra last week, to unlock development that is currently blocked in areas where there are excess levels of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus in catchments.

Defra said: “The government will work with water companies to identify where these upgrades could be accelerated and delivered sooner. Our proposed Environment Act target to tackle wastewater pollution across the country will see upgrades brought in elsewhere in addition to those required by the new duty on companies, on a slightly longer timeframe.”

Alongside the new duty, a new Nutrient Mitigation Scheme will be established in autumn by Natural England. Developers will be able to either put their own nutrient mitigation measures in place, or buy credits via the scheme to fund investment in new or expanded wetlands and woodlands which will ‘soak up’ the impacts of nutrient pollution. Natural England will run the scheme in partnership with green groups and other privately led nutrient mitigation schemes.

Together the two policies are intended to support the delivery of the tens of thousands of homes currently in the planning system.

In England, 27 water catchments (encompassing 31 internationally important water bodies and protected sites) are in unfavourable status due to nutrient pollution. Natural England has advised a total of 74 Local Planning Authorities that plans and projects should only go ahead if they will not cause additional pollution to these legally protected sites.