{"id":634345,"date":"2026-09-24T08:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T08:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634345\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T08:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T08:36:09","slug":"cash-to-trash-levy-on-house-developers-too-low-to-offset-damage-to-norfolk-broads-say-critics-environment-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634345\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cash to trash\u2019 levy on house developers too low to offset damage to Norfolk Broads, say critics | Environment policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new levy on developers to allow almost 16,000 homes to be built in the environmentally protected Norfolk<\/a> Broads has been cut by tens of thousands of pounds per house, the Guardian can reveal.<\/p>\n

Ministers say the government\u2019s environmental delivery plans (EDPs) were created to unblock housing growth across the country and are a \u201cwin-win\u201d for development and nature.<\/p>\n

They allow environmental damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked as long as developers pay into a nature restoration fund, which is used for conservation actions at a later date designed to address the impacts. Once the first instalment of the fee is paid, work can start immediately.<\/p>\n

Labelled by critics as \u201ccash to trash\u201d<\/a>, the first EDP was published last week by the government\u2019s nature adviser, Natural England. It allows 15,780 houses to be built within the Norfolk Broads, a heavily protected wetland network of 60 shallow lakes and winding rivers that is home to some of England\u2019s rarest species.<\/p>\n

The development is expected to cause increased nutrient pollution from a rise in sewage pollution and urban run-off into protected chalk stream rivers. Photograph: Tim Cochrane<\/p>\n

The published plan, which is open for consultation for 28 days<\/a>, states that the developer will pay \u00a32,675 per house \u2013 \u00a342m in total \u2013 into the nature restoration fund to cover compensatory actions including fenland creation and restoration, a change in use of agricultural land to semi-natural habitat, catch-dyke restoration and deer management.<\/p>\n

But a previous draft of the EDP, seen by the Guardian, set the levy much higher. Ecologists said this was to properly reflect the realistic costs of mitigating the increased nutrient pollution from increased sewage pollution and urban run-off into protected chalk stream rivers \u2013 the Wensum, Bure and Yare \u2013 caused by the development.<\/p>\n

The fee was to be between \u00a35,400 and \u00a360,500 per house, depending on the scale of total nutrient pollution that the development would cause.<\/p>\n

Map<\/a><\/p>\n

The fenlands, marshes, bogs and mires of the Broads are a biodiversity hotspot, home to more than a quarter of the rarest wildlife in the UK such as the otter, cuckoo and fen orchid.<\/p>\n

Natural England acknowledges that the new homes will cause environmental harm in the form of physical, chemical, hydrological and biological damage to the habitats and rare species in the Broads from increased nitrogen and phosphorus pollution.<\/p>\n

But the EDP states that the payment of the levy and the conservation actions it funds \u201cwill materially outweigh the negative effect of the maximum amount of development on the conservation status of each identified environmental feature\u201d.<\/p>\n

Critics point out that Natural England<\/a> is being funded by the developer\u2019s \u00a342m levy to carry out the works, raising concerns of a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

Environmental lawyers, ecologists and environmental professionals say the levy is too low. They say none of the conservation actions created by Natural England address reducing the nutrient pollution coming from the development.<\/p>\n

Analysis of the figures in the EDP reveal that an extra 7,695kg a year of nitrogen will enter the protected waterways, amounting to 83% of the development\u2019s pollution load, and up to 435kg a year of extra phosphorus, according Alexa Culver, legal counsel at RSK Wilding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All the actions in the EDP compensate rather than mitigate or avoid environment harm: not one avoidance measure has been included. Photograph: Chris Herring\/Alamy<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopers will be paying a levy that green-lights more pollution rather than solves the problem \u2013 quite literally the definition of \u2018pay to pollute\u2019 or \u2018cash to trash\u2019,\u201d Culver said.<\/p>\n

The Norfolk Broads EDP is the first since the Planning and Infrastructure Act came into force. Others will be rolled out to allow development alongside and within some of the UK\u2019s most protected sites.<\/p>\n

Sally Hayns, the chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM<\/a>), said: \u201cIt is important to get this right because this first EDP is effectively the blueprint for all the other EDPs targeting nutrient pollution that are going to follow: these are already in preparation and will be coming thick and fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis EDP is an articulation of the government\u2019s ambition to deliver a win-win for development and nature through the Planning and Infrastructure Act. We finally get to see what that looks like in practice \u2013 and there is real concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Norfolk Broads are already so polluted by nitrogen and phosphorus from sewage, agriculture and run off that they are on the red list of concern and severely depleted. Photograph: Tim Cochrane<\/p>\n

Hayns said the levy seemed low. \u201cI think there has been a very conservative estimate of how much things are going to cost, with minimal contingency built in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not one avoidance measure has been included in the EDP.<\/p>\n

Hayns said she was at a loss to understand why recognised solutions to strip out nutrient pollution before it enters waterways, including sustainable drainage systems, and integrated constructed wetlands \u2013 pools and marshes to filter out nutrient pollution \u2013 had not been included.<\/p>\n

The Broads are already so polluted by nitrogen and phosphorus from sewage, agriculture and run off that they are on the red list of concern and severely depleted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf nutrient pollution gets worse we will end up with choked, poisoned waterways and we will lose some of our most vulnerable and rarest species,\u201d Hayns said.<\/p>\n

Dr Justin Neal, the head of legal at WildFish, said the delivery plan was full of holes and set up a worrying \u201cpay to pollute\u201d system that was being used to sacrifice countryside for concrete.<\/p>\n

The banks of the River Yare, which is home to white clawed crayfish and lamprey. Photograph: Tim Cochrane<\/p>\n

\u201cNorfolk\u2019s chalk streams and wetlands are protected for a good reason,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Yare and Wensum, for instance, hold white clawed crayfish and lamprey. They shouldn\u2019t be sacrificed on the altar of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley Tooze, the nature restoration fund director at Natural England, said: \u201cThe environment delivery plan aims to deliver better outcomes to protect the precious habitats of the Norfolk Broads while enabling sustainable development, including through river restoration measures and wetland habitat creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consultation on this first plan is now open. We welcome all views on our proposals and encourage stakeholders to share their expertise to help shape this new approach to nature restoration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new levy on developers to allow almost 16,000 homes to be built in the environmentally protected Norfolk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-634345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}