Greenpeace Ruling Exposes UK Government Policy
March 3, 2025
In January 2025, Greenpeace brought a collective action against the Dutch state for failing to comply with a 2018 European Court of Justice ruling on nutrient neutrality. An appeal is expected: however, as the UK Government has adopted the same ‘tax builders for pollution others cause’ approach to reducing nutrient pollution, it may find itself needing to reassess its strategy if it is to escape legal action.
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said:
“Labour inherited a disastrous ‘blame builders’ policy by the last government, which flirted with reversing their approach, but prioritised their party over growth and fairness by choosing to tax developers to mitigate pollution cause by agriculture and water waste companies. The Netherlands has exposed this approach as flawed, something industry has been warning Government about since 2019, because pollution in protected habitats has not improved.”
The UK Government chose to replicate the Netherland’s model of taxing the development industry by forcing them to purchase local mitigation credits to offset the impact of new developments. Unfortunately, in many areas, these credits remain unavailable and even when this meant housebuilding was banned, water quality often worsened.
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight, added:
“New housing accounts for less than 1% of nutrient pollution, and that pollution comes from occupants, who already pay water companies to clean up their waste. The only solution is to help farmers pollute less, since they contribute up to 75% of it, and ensure water companies are held accountable by requiring them to deliver infrastructure, such as treatment works, and using emergency planning powers to support these projects.
Blaming builders has only worsened the quality of watercourses. For example, despite no new housing being built near the River Lugg, pollution levels have still increased. Water companies continue to escape accountability by using a developer tax to deliver solutions such as wetlands, while existing waterways continue to be polluted. Meanwhile, the credit mitigation system has seen SME builders hit the hardest, projects ended due to a lack of credit availability, and UK food security reduced through loss of farmland in order to create mitigation credits.
This perverse six-year experiment must end, not just for the sake of growth, but for the health of the UK’s environment.”
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