Stop ‘cash to trash’ housebuilding in Norfolk Broads, says Labour MP — SkimNews
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- Chris Hinchliff is urging the Office for Environmental Protection to halt the Norfolk Broads' first environmental delivery plan (EDP), which permits 15,780 new homes with developers paying £2,675 each — £42m total — into a central nature restoration fund.
- Hinchliff cited Natural England's own data showing the plan's conservation measures would still leave 83% of extra nitrogen and up to 61% of extra phosphorus flowing into the waterways each year, permanently, despite the Broads requiring 91–97% pollution cuts to recover.
- The Norfolk Broads shelter more than a quarter of the UK's rarest plants and animals, yet Hinchliff said the EDP relies on indirect measures — fen cutting, deer control, one weir removal and 1km of river restoration — instead of upgrading septic tanks or planting riverside buffer strips.
- Chris Packham and the Wildlife Trusts backed the campaign, with Packham calling the scheme a 'cunning scheme to pour in a whole lot more' pollution into the Yare, Bure and Wensum rivers, which the Trusts said could be 'tipped over the edge' by even minor phosphorus increases.
- Ministers defend EDPs as essential to hit their 1.5m new homes target by the end of this parliament and call them a 'win-win' for nature and growth, while Natural England says the Norfolk plan is open to consultation until 27 October and will serve as a blueprint for every future EDP.
Why it matters: This EDP is the first test of Labour's flagship planning reform: if the OEP allows it, officials have already signalled it becomes the template for offset payments at every future protected-site development in England, meaning environmental harm is traded for a single conservation fund — not stopped at source.
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