Labour will “lose public trust” over moves to clean up the environment if it continues to back Tory plans to scrap pollution rules for housebuilders, green groups have said.
Secretaries of state Michael Gove and Thérèse Coffey last week tabled an amendment to the levelling up bill removing rules that require local councils to block new homes in sensitive areas, such as the Lake District and Norfolk Broads, if they add to nutrient pollution in rivers.
Nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates come from sewage and cause algal blooms and loss of oxygen in rivers. The levelling up bill is being considered by the House of Lords, where it could still meet opposition.
The rules, called nutrient neutrality, were inherited from the EU habitats directive, which requires European countries to protect fragile ecosystems and endangered wildlife.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow environment minister Alex Sobel have both promised over the years Labour would adopt the EU’s strong environmental standards.
However, shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy has come out in tentative support of the amendment and it is understood Labour would not repeal it if in power.
Labour’s tacit backing has alarmed wildlife groups. Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “Labour will lose public trust if they go along with government plans to remove laws that stop water pollution getting worse and force clean-up costs on to the taxpayer.
“This is a key test for Labour; will they lazily accept the false dichotomy that has been presented by the government, or will they offer a positive vision of how we can build hundreds of thousands of new homes in this country, but in a way that helps restore nature and clean up our environment, not turn the UK into the dirty man of Europe?”
While developers previously had to pay to clean up pollution and improve wetlands, the cost of the move, totalling £280m, will fall entirely on the taxpayer and the quango Natural England. The government has for years promised that leaving the EU would not mean lower environmental standards, but experts say the scrapping of this EU-derived environmental law will lead to increased pollution in important habitats.
Reacting to the government announcement last week, Nandy said: “Labour will support effective measures that get Britain building, but it’s laughable to think that a prime minister who is too weak to stand up to the nimbys on his own backbenches can be trusted to deliver the housing Britain needs.
“With housebuilding projected to fall to the lowest level since the second world war and our rivers full of sewage, the Tories are failing on both housing and the environment.
“The government is responsible for environmental policy; housebuilders should not be asked to cover for their abject failure.”
Labour could not count on the votes of the environmentally minded if it went along with government plans to allow more pollution, campaigners added.
Dr Doug Parr, Policy Director for Greenpeace UK, added: “UK environmental and conservation groups, and their millions of supporters, are losing patience with the current government and will expect significantly better from a potential incoming Labour one. The nature emergency will not go away just because some rosettes change colour, and the failures and backward steps from this administration will necessitate stronger and more urgent action from the next.
“It’s very difficult to see those millions of environment group supporters voting to embrace Brexit as an opportunity to ditch environmental standards and turn Britain into a polluters’ playground. Labour should remember that they could choose to put their votes elsewhere.”
Beccy Speight, chief executive of the RSPB, said: “The environment will continue to be a top issue for the electorate going into the next general election, and this week has made it crystal clear that the public expects whomever is running the country to act as a custodian for our wildlife and wild spaces. Nature is in crisis and we believe that together we can save it.”
The chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper, has yet to speak out about the new pollution rules. When approached by the Observer he declined to comment on the policy U-turn, which many thought undermined him. He had been vocally against the idea of getting rid of nutrient neutrality, saying that removing the rules would result in “rivers full of sewage”.
His silence caused many to believe he would resign. However, he said: “I’ve no intention of [resigning]. It is my privilege to lead the NE team in our national programme for nature recovery and I don’t believe the work of this excellent organisation will be aided by me going.”
Juniper said in July that without nutrient neutrality, it would not be possible for the government to meet its legally binding Environment Act targets. These concern improvements to habitats as well as increasing wildlife abundance.
He said: “Measures to avoid nutrient pollution getting worse must be a vital aspect of any serious attempt to meet environmental targets. The rules to do this are not unnecessary blocks on development, but essential safeguards for our depleted natural environment.”
