The Government’s controversial amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill was blocked by the House of Lords last month following a vote of 203 to 156.
The proposed amendment to the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill would have eased regulations and removed the need for proof that projects are “nutrient neutral” and not contributing to water pollution in protected areas. As the proposed bill was rejected at this stage, the government cannot attempt to modify the bill again. Instead, any new proposals would need to be brought forward by way of a new bill.
Speaking during a debate in the House of Commons, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning Rachel Maclean claimed that without the amendment the legislation would cause a “block on building that is hampering local economies and threatening to put small and medium sized local builders out of business.”
Following the defeat, the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, claimed that Labour had ordered peers to block “the dream of home ownership for thousands of families”.
Labour had ordered peers to block “the dream of home ownership for thousands of families.”
The victory for Labour was led by deputy leader Angela Rayner in her new role as Shadow Levelling up secretary. She accused the conservative party of attempting “to score cheap political points” with a “flawed plan”.
The defeat was also welcomed by members of the Liberal Democrat party and the Green Party alongside some green groups who backed regulation to protect waterways nationwide.
The nutrient neutrality regulations were created to regulate the nutrients leaked by developments into local wetlands and waterways, affecting 62 local authorities. Ministers who were in favour of deregulatory regulation assured that they would deliver an extra 18bn in economic activity for housing developers.
Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network has said that he feels that housebuilding was only a “small contributor” to river pollution. However, following this defeat local planning authorities should now continue to follow the existing regulation and will continue to only be able to proceed in sensitive catchment areas.
The advice from Natural England to the government is to ensure that developers pay for pollution, claiming: “fixed-rate contributions could be faster and offer more certainty in enabling planning permissions to be granted.”