Ministers’ plans to weaken river pollution rules are in tatters after they suffered two defeats in the House of Lords.
Labour had made clear that it would oppose the “reckless” plans by the Conservatives to rip up EU-derived laws on nutrient neutrality, which force developers to mitigate pollution from new developments.
Because the attempt to scrap the rules by the Tories was introduced at a late stage in the passage of the levelling up and regeneration bill, it will not return to the Commons, leaving the government with its policy in disarray.
Craig Bennett, of the Wildlife Trusts, welcomed Labour’s decision to oppose the attempts to scrap the nutrient neutrality rules, which meant a government defeat was inevitable.
“The government was proposing the most significant weakening of environmental legislation in 30 years, and it was crucial that Labour stepped up not just to stop it, but also to expose the utterly false choice between housing and pollution that Rishi Sunak was offering,” he said. “The millions of people that are fed up of the pollution in our rivers will be very grateful.”
Michael Gove, the housing secretary, and Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, had pushed for the end of what they termed “defective” EU laws, which require developers to offset any extra nutrient pollution they cause in sensitive areas under the habitats directive. These areas include the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads.
This came despite Tory promises not to weaken environmental standards after Brexit and amid fury over the state of English rivers, not one of which passes tests for safe levels of chemical or biological pollution.
The Guardian revealed this week that the government ignored its own nature watchdog’s advice on scrapping the pollution rules.
Correspondence from Natural England to Lady Young of Old Scone, a Scottish Labour member of the house, showed that the nature watchdog had said the rule changes were not necessary and that the current scheme was working to deliver homes and reduce nutrients.
The advice from Natural England recommends making developers pay for the pollution: “Our experience in similar schemes suggests that upfront, fixed-rate contributions from developers could be faster and offer more certainty in enabling planning permissions to be granted and support emerging green finance markets.”
After the government’s plan was defeated on Wednesday night, Richard Benwell, the chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “We are delighted that Labour, the Lib Dems and the Green party all recognise that sustainable development and nature protection can go hand in hand. The government’s old-fashioned approach to development by deregulation has no place in a nature-positive parliament.”
Labour’s deputy leader and the shadow deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, said the defeat in the Lords showed “the Tories have utterly failed in their attempt to score cheap political points with a flawed plan … We stand ready to sit down with the government, housebuilders and environmental groups to agree on a workable solution to build the homes we need.”
The attempt to ease the rules, by amending the levelling up and regeneration bill, was defeated by 203 votes to 156, a majority of 47.
The Green party peer Jenny Jones, who helped to lead the rebellion in the Lords, said: “If the government are so desperate to add to the unacceptable levels of pollution in the water, they can bring the measures back in a separate bill, as part of the king’s speech.
“They can then consult properly and justify it to a public who are already fed up with polluted local rivers and beaches. And If I was prime minister, I wouldn’t relish having a conversation with King Charles about the horrendous state of the country’s waterways.”
At prime minister’s questions earlier, Rishi Sunak said Labour under Keir Starmer could not be trusted to build more homes. He said Labour’s opposition to the government’s plans was “typical of the principles-free, conviction-free type of leadership that he offers”.
“Flip-flopping from being a builder to a blocker,” Sunak said. “The British people can’t trust a word he says.”
But the opposition leader’s spokesperson rejected the charge, saying the government’s plans were “rushed and flawed”.
