BM Rural Outlook - Flipbook - Page 29
26 | Rural Outlook Issue 21
Planning & Development | 27
Achieving
nitrate neutrality
It may sound harmless to a layman, but the impact
of ‘nitrate neutrality’ is far from neutral on the
development of new homes across large parts of
the South East.
Planning permissions have ground to a
halt in areas around the Solent and in
large parts of Kent as local authorities
and stakeholders look for a way to
mitigate the impact of high levels of
nitrogen and phosphate on wetlands
that are vitally important for wildlife.
Natural England has effectively put
the brakes on all new applications that
would increase the amount of nitrates
and phosphates reaching water courses
draining into the Solent or, in Kent,
reaching the internationally important
Stodmarsh area via the River Stour and
its catchment area.
The move reflects a decision by the
European Court of Justice against the
Netherlands which ruled that in areas
where a habitat’s conservation status
was already ‘unfavourable’, activities
that would add further nitrogen
pollution should not be authorised.
Along with agricultural practices, new
dwellings produce ‘grey’ water that
contains nitrates. This drains into
vulnerable wetlands and encourages
the growth of algae, which absorbs more
than its fair share of oxygen and harms
animal and bird life.
It is a problem that can’t be
underestimated, but as yet very few
solutions have been proposed for
tackling it, leaving landowners, councils
with five-year housing plans to deliver,
potential new home buyers and the
construction industry all severely
impacted. In total, plans for some 20,000
homes across the Solent and east Kent
have been put on hold.
In the long term, the cornerstone of the
mitigation strategy is likely to be a major
upgrade to Southern Water’s waste water
treatment plants to filter out or neutralise
nitrate and phosphate from the waste
water discharged from new homes, but
that’s proving far from simple.
Southern Water works on a five year
asset plan, so funds earmarked now
would not have an impact before 2026,
and the situation is not helped by the fact
that the agency refuses to accept Section
106 contributions towards upgrades,
which means developers can’t simply
write a cheque to unblock the system.
Instead, the focus is on farmers taking
land out of production – or farming it
with fewer inputs – or on developers
contributing to the creation of new
wetlands to offset any damage done
elsewhere, something which could
provide opportunities for farmers with
relatively unproductive areas of poorly
drained land looking for a new and
environmentally friendly use.
The issue first came to light in the Solent,
said by Natural England to have one of
the most important water environments
for wildlife in the UK.
The agency discovered the Solent was
being affected by accelerated algae
growth caused by the increase in waste
water from development and from
agricultural fertiliser. It advised the
Solent planning authorities not to grant
permission unless a development could
be proved to be nitrate neutral.
At a stroke, the advice imposed a
moratorium on new housing, any
developments featuring overnight
accommodation such as hotels and
student accommodation and tourist
facilities that would discharge waste
water into the Solent, an area that
contains special protection areas
and special areas of conservation.
The focus is on farmers
taking land out of
production – or farming
it with fewer inputs – or
on developers contributing
to the creation of new
wetlands to offset any
damage done elsewhere
With Southern Water unwilling to make
the necessary short-term improvements,
developers are looking for other ways
of making sure new homes are nitrate
neutral, or at least that they can provide
mitigation elsewhere.
In Havant, a mitigation strategy allows
developers of non-agricultural land to
contribute cash, currently set at £1,235
per kilo of nitrogen discharged, which
the council spends on taking land out
of farming use and creating nitrateabsorbing habitat in its place. A typical
scheme of four dwellings would cost
the developer around £4,000.
Also in the Solent catchment, a nitrate
capture scheme has been introduced
at Whitewool Farm in the Upper Meon
Valley and Warblington Farm, Havant
has been turned from a dairy unit to a
nature reserve.
Meanwhile the Hampshire and Isle
of Wight Wildlife Trust has bought a
40-hectare farm on the Isle of Wight
where it will rewild the land to prevent
soils containing fertiliser entering the
Solent. Developers can pay into the
scheme to buy offset credits that will
allow them to achieve ‘nitrate neutrality’.
In what could be another opportunity
for landowners to benefit from helping
to ease the backlog, Wessex Water has
developed a scheme which pays farmers
per kilogram of nitrogen saved through
good farming practices.
Meanwhile in September 2020, the
Government announced that it would
invest £3.9m in an online nitrates
trading auction platform. This will allow
developers to buy credits that will fund
habitats such as meadows, woodlands
and wetlands to prevent nitrates from
new housing reaching the Solent.
Kent is slightly further behind the curve,
as the problems being caused to the
internationally recognised wetlands at
Stodmarsh, to the east of Canterbury,
were discovered more recently. The
impact has been equally severe, though,
with land across much of the county,
including Ashford town centre, now
subject to a ban on development that
cannot be shown to be nitrate neutral.
Following a review in 2017/18 that
identified raised nitrogen and phosphate
levels in some lakes at Stodmarsh,
Natural England issued advice in July
Rising nitrogen and phosphate levels in Stodmarsh caused Natural England to act
2020 that reflected European case law
on habitat regulations aimed at avoiding
further deterioration in the water quality.
It means residential development in
Maidstone, Ashford, Canterbury and
small parts of Dover, Folkestone and
Hythe is served by a waste water
system draining into the Stour and its
catchments cannot be approved until a
mitigation strategy has been adopted.
Again, landowners in Kent are said to
be considering putting forward areas
of land with offset potential as part of
a mitigation strategy, while landowners
hoping to develop greenfield sites
can take other land out of production,
although the amount of mitigation this
provides will depend on how chemicaldependant the land was in the first place.
There are clearly opportunities for
landowners to offer sites for nitratecapturing schemes or to adopt less
chemical intensive farming methods
and take advantage of the incentives on
offer, and it is of course in their interests
to do so. Without a move towards nitrate
neutrality, selling land for new homes in
certain parts of the region could be on
the back burner for a while yet.
Clare Bartlett
c.bartlett@batchellermonkhouse.com