House of Lords committee to put operation of Biodiversity Net Gain, neutrient neutrality and habitats regulations under the microscope
A powerful group of Lords are to investigate the impact of environmental regulations on development, amid growing concern from the industry over the impact of rules around nutrient neutrality and biodiversity net gain.
The House of Lords Built Environment Committee has announced an enquiry into environmental regulations which it said will specifically look at issues including biodiversity net gain, nutrient neutrality, habitats regulations and air quality.
The committee, which is chaired by Conservative peer Lord Moylan, said the inquiry will look at the governance of nationally defined environmental regulations in England, the associated costs they bring to developers and promoters, and their impact on the delivery of projects.
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It also intends to ask questions about the roles of environmental quangos including the Environment Agency and Natural England, both of which have come under strong criticism from the development industry for their role in the nutrient neutrality crisis.
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) estimates that plans for more than 100,000 homes are currently being held up by the requirement to deliver nutrient neutrality, which is almost impossible for individual developers to deliver on most sites.
The HBF has said that the government’s proposed solution to the issue – to develop a national system of developer credits and require water companies to improve water treatment works by 2030 – is not enough to address the problem.
The report comes in the week the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said how it plans to implement the requirement for developers to deliver a 10% net gain in biodiversity on development sites by this November.
The chair of the Built Environment Committee, Lord Moylan, is a former advisor to Boris Johnson during his time as mayor of London, during which time Lord Moylan was chair of the London Legacy Development Corporation, deputy chair of Transport for London and advised on the creation of an airport in the Thames.
The Committee said it was not seeking to evaluate individual environmental rules, but instead how they were implemented through the planning system, and the interactions between different environmental regulations.
Those wishing to submit evidence to the enquiry must do so by March 31.
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