Farmers lose out to house builders on pollution
Farmers in England are set to lose access to a fledgling private nutrient offset market, potentially worth millions of pounds, after the government scrapped water pollution restrictions for new housing developments, according to Farmers Weekly.
Legacy EU rules obliging developers to show how they would prevent or offset pollution for any new homes they intend to build will be junked, following an announcement from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Instead, ministers have set out plans to double investment in Natural England’s public Nutrient MitigationScheme to £280m, claiming this will be sufficient to offset the amount of nutrient discharge from up to 100,000 homes between now and 2030.
But Rob Shepherd, who chairs the Environmental Farmers Group co-operative that has spent two years creating a nutrient offset market, told Farmers Weekly he was “very disappointed” that emphasis had shifted from the house building industry to agriculture.
“Once again, the government is using farming as a scapegoat for the nutrients going into the rivers, where the true culprits are the house developers,” he said.
“We’re allowed to apply 250kg of nitrate per hectare, but that isn’t just going through the ground into the river, it’s being used to grow crops. There may be a little bit of surplus nitrate, but there’s a lot of management we can do to mitigate even that last 30kg.
“Every house development generates 62.5kg of nitrate per hectare and all that stuff is going straight into the river.
A government spokesperson said: “The government is clear that developers should continue to play their part in tackling nutrient pollution, which is why we are working with the Home Builders Federation to structure appropriate and fair contributions – which we both agree are needed.
“Many farmers are already working hard to prevent nutrient pollution and yesterday’s announcement saw £200m made available for them to continue to do this through various schemes.”
For more information on this story visit the Farmers Weekly website.
