The environment department has admitted that a scheme announced yesterday designed to ease the “nutrient neutrality” crisis holding up plans for tens of thousands of homes won’t be up and running in the autumn, as originally suggested.

A spokesperson for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the Natural England only planned to begin work tendering for sites for its Nutrient Mitigation Scheme in the autumn, despite the government yesterday saying the scheme will “open” in the autumn.

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