Reports of no fresh legislation planned on nutrients issue confirmed

Fresh legislation to overhaul the nutrient pollution laws blamed for holding up the building of 150,000 homes was not included in today鈥檚 King鈥檚 Speech.

The current nutrient neutrality rules require that housing developments in specified areas do not add to pollution of waterways with nutrients such as nitrogen or phosphates.

Housing secretary Michael Gove told a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference last month he wanted the rules to be scrapped 鈥渁t the first available opportunity鈥� and indicated he would bring back a bill to parliament in order to do it.

king

Today鈥檚 event was the new monarch鈥檚 first King鈥檚 Speech

The government鈥檚 original plan was to amend the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to allow housebuilders to effectively ignore evidence of nutrient pollution from housing development sites.

However, this was defeated in the House of Lords in September after Labour peers joined a revolt against the plan.

Parliamentary procedure prohibits further attempts to amend the levelling up bill, so ministers had been eyeing fresh legislation.

Today鈥檚 omission means the last chance to pass legislation on nutrient neutrality rules has now passed, confirming reports the government has dropped plans to legislate on the issue.

>>See also:

>>See also:

Meanwhile, in his first speech as monarch, King Charles III today set out the government鈥檚 plans for the year ahead in Westminster.

He said the government 鈥渨ill deliver a long term plan to regenerate towns and put local people in control of the future of their towns鈥�.

The government鈥檚 Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which gained Royal Assent last month, overhauls planning and plan-making, reforms developer contributions and enshrines the government鈥檚 鈥渓evelling up missions鈥� in law.

It also includes new 鈥榮treet vote鈥� powers, which would allow residents on a street to bring forward proposals to redevelop their properties in line with their design preferences.

The government is also planning to make it 鈥渆asier for leaseholders to purchase their freehold and tackling the exploitation of millions of homeowners through punitive service charges鈥�.

The Leasehold and Freehold Bill referred to by the King has long been promised by Gove who has described system of freeholders maintaining control over properties as 鈥渇eudal鈥�.

The planned legislation will make it cheaper and easier for existing leaseholders in houses and flats to extend their lease or buy their freehold by increasing the standard lease extension term from 90 years to 990 years for both houses and flats, with ground rent reduced to zero.

Arcadis partner Simon Rawlinson said: 鈥淲ith the exception of leasehold and freehold reform, there is little in this King鈥檚 Speech that helps or hinders the construction sector. Given the scale of change associated with recently passed 好色先生TV Safety, Levelling-up and Energy legislation a pause to focus on implementation is no bad thing.鈥�