Plans to rip up pollution rules for housebuilders are a “regression” which will degrade England’s rivers, the government’s environment watchdog has said.
An amendment tabled by the government to the levelling up bill orders local authorities to ignore nutrient pollution from new developments in ecologically sensitive areas in England, including the Norfolk Broads and the Lake District. These nutrients, when untreated, cause algal blooms that choke the life from rivers.
Under the current system, which is derived from EU law, developers are not allowed to add more pollution to already-polluted protected areas, unless they buy “credits” which are used to improve nearby wetlands.
In a letter to the secretaries of state Thérèse Coffey and Michael Gove, the chair of the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), Dame Glenys Stacey, said their proposed amendment, which they claim will unlock 100,000 new homes, would degrade the environment.
She wrote: “The proposed changes would demonstrably reduce the level of environmental protection provided for in existing environmental law. They are a regression. Yet the government has not adequately explained how, alongside such weakening of environmental law, new policy measures will ensure it still meets its objectives for water quality and protected site condition.”
Campaigners have previously called the OEP, which replaces the EU in enforcing environmental law, “toothless”. It has written to the environment secretary and her predecessors on numerous occasions to express concern that her department’s plans will contravene environmental law.
However, Coffey has been able to ignore it and proceed with her plans regardless.
Stacey has demanded the ministers face parliament to explain themselves and tell colleagues how they plan to prevent rivers being choked by pollution.
The solicitor and civil servant said the ministers were contravening their promises to parliament, referring to: “Gove’s statement to parliament, under section 20 of the Environment Act 2021, that ‘the bill will not have the effect of reducing the level of environmental protection provided for by any existing environmental law’”. She said that the “amendments now run counter to these commitments”.
She said: “It is essential to clarify the section 20 statement made to parliament in light of the government’s intention to weaken the habitats regulations. If necessary, ministers should make a statement equivalent to that required by section 20(4) and confirm that they are no longer able to say that the bill would not reduce the level of environmental protection provided for by any existing environmental law, but that the government nevertheless wishes parliament to proceed.”
She said England’s important wildlife areas were already at risk, writing: “Many of England’s most important protected wildlife sites are in a parlous state, with their condition well below where it needs to be. This is often due to…
2023-08-30 11:56:05
Original from www.theguardian.com
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