Can we have more housing and protect the environment? That is the challenge which the government hoped to meet with the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. They hope that revised planning regulations can speed up housing development and improve environmental management at the same time. A key element is a set of 23 Environmental Development Plans (EDPs), and the first has just been published by Natural England. It covers more than half of Norfolk, focusing on the management of water quality across the catchment of the county’s three main rivers: the Yare, Bure, and Wensum.
So what is changing?
Under current ‘nutrient neutrality’ planning rules, every new building project has to conform to a host of environmental regulations. Showing how this will be done is complex, and the three rivers already suffer from high levels of nutrient pollution (phosphorus and nitrogen), partly as a result of pollution from housing (even when wastewater is properly treated, which is not always the case). Applying the regulations is time-consuming, sometimes repetitive and expensive, both for the developer and the planning authority. And because each project is treated independently, the overall environmental impact can be fragmented.
The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 takes a new approach. It aims to manage water quality strategically across each of the river catchment areas. Rather than having to meet the Habitats Regulations obligations for each individual site, a developer can opt to pay a Nature Restoration Levy of £2,675 per home into a Nature Restoration Fund. That fund will be used by Natural England for long-term ‘catchment-scale’ conservation measures. And in 2036, Natural England must satisfy an Overall Improvement Test: demonstrating that the impact of the conservation measures has outweighed the impact of the additional pollution from the allowed development.
This plan does not cover the entire catchment areas of the rivers. The three Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), River Ant, Trinity, and Upper Thurne, are excluded from the scheme. This represents a significant area of the Norfolk Broads.
The plan is designed to be aligned with national nature and water targets. These include the national Environmental Improvement Plan; Environment Act targets for biodiversity and water; Norfolk’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy; the Broads Plan; and Natural England’s own strategy.
What does Natural England propose?
The draft plan lays how Natural England plans to spend the money, the table shows what is proposed and the area affected in hectares (a hectare is 2.47 acres, or 1.4 football pitches):
| Conservation measure | Quantum of conservation measure |
| Fen-type wetland habitat creation and restoration | 109 ha (Bure18 ha, Yare 91 ha) |
| Land use change to semi-natural habitat contiguous with wetland creation | 109 ha (Bure 18 ha, Yare 91 ha) |
| Land use change (wider catchment not associated with any wetland) | 286 ha (Bure 30 ha, Yare/Wensum 256 Ha) |
| Fen-type wetland habitat management | 162 ha (Yare) |
| Catch dyke remediation | 500 metres (Yare) |
| Deer management project | Focus on Yare and Bure protected sites with buffer, covering at least 3,700 ha |
| River naturalisation and restoration | Removal or modification of one structure (weir/impoundment) on the River Wensum, alongside 1 kilometre of river restoration (contiguous) |
| Fen creation for Desmoulins whorl snail | 10 ha |
| Planning conditions to secure | Condition imposed on all development not connecting to mains sewers for foul water |
Issues
The three catchment areas include some unique and valuable environments, and all three rivers are already seriously polluted, so any plan must do more than maintain the status quo. But we also need to find ways of securing housing development at scale. So something needs to be done.
The question is whether this plan is a workable way of achieving both objectives. The principle of the strategy – to offset damage after the fact rather than stop it at source – was laid out in the Act. In this case it assumes that the impact of additional nutrients from up to 15,870 homes will be offset by other conservation measures. Some doubt that this is plausible, but it is now the law.
There are a number of other issues which are open to debate:
- Are the proposed measures sufficient to meet the need? Will the proposed levy charge of £2,675 per home (substantially lower than many observers were expecting) provide sufficient funds for the work planned, and is that enough to meet the real need?
- How sound are the plan’s assumptions? They make estimates of expected water efficiency, of the ecological impact of particular measures, and the behaviour of developers and local authorities. If these assumptions are wrong, the scheme could fail to deliver on its objectives.
- Can we rely on this plan being carried out? There is provision for the plan to be amended if monitoring shows that measures are not achieving expected outcomes. This means that the original package is not fixed and could be weakened or re-scoped. Is this a risk?
- Is it appropriate to focus only on housing? The plan is only concerned with housing development. The government is also introducing new measures to improve wastewater treatment, but neither approach does anything to tackle industrial development or agricultural runoff, which is a major source of river pollution.
- What happens if Natural England fails to pass the test? They are required to monitor and report on outcomes against the Overall Improvement Test in 2031 and 2036. What happens if the test is failed? Recent experience in the water industry shows the difficulty of ensuring accountability when companies fail to meet their commitments.
Consultation
Natural England’s draft plan has been published for consultation. The consultation closes at 9.29am on Tuesday 27 October 2026. The Consultation Guide provides a brief background and guidance on how to respond.
Although the full document is very extensive (255 pages), it begins with a concise six-page executive summary.
This consultation is especially important because this is the first of the 23 plans which are to be produced nationally. The intention is that the experience and learning gained from this process will help refine future consultations and strengthen the development and delivery of subsequent EDPs.
The status quo is not an option
Changes to planning, especially when they have environmental implications, always attract protests. But if the status quo is not acceptable it will not be enough to reject this plan.
So, is this workable and good enough? Can it be improved? And if not this, what is the alternative?
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