Seems to confirm he is “uninterested” in the environment, maybe it doesn’t feature on the spreadsheet.

Build the houses first, the essential infrastructure such as upgrading sewage works (and schools, medical resources, transport links etc) can/may follow later.  – Owl

Rishi Sunak has given his backing to plans to lift a ban blocking the construction of tens of thousands of properties imposed by the government’s environment watchdog.

Oliver Wright, Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.co.uk 

The Times understands that the prime minister has intervened in a stand-off between Michael Gove, the housing secretary, and Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, over rules imposed by Natural England that have brought housing developments to a halt across large swathes of the country.

More than 70 councils have been forced to block developments of up to 120,000 new homes because of concerns about the potential additional pollution of local rivers.

Under so-called “nutrient neutrality” rules, developers can only get planning permission if they offset the impact of extra sewage from new homes by working elsewhere in the catchment area to balance out the additional pollution. That typically involves creating wetlands to strip out excess nitrogen and phosphate pollution in rivers.

In the longer term, water companies are due to upgrade their sewage treatment works to reduce the issue, but critics have warned that the government needs to take action faster to unblock developments ahead of a general election.

A senior government source said that Sunak was “minded” to support a move by Gove to change the law to allow developments to go ahead in advance of sewage treatment works being upgraded. The change is expected to be included in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill currently going through parliament.

The source said: “Exactly how the new law will work is still being worked through but, in principle, the prime minister is minded to act.”

Sunak’s intervention follows months of behind-the-scenes wrangling between Gove’s Levelling Up department, which is responsible for housing, and Coffey’s environment department, Defra.

One government source said: “It would be fair to say that Michael and Thérèse don’t see eye to eye on this.” The source said Defra did not want any breach of what it sees as “sacrosanct nutrient neutrality rules” and was worried about a “backlash from the environmental movement”.

They added: “But the reality is that unless we can come up with an allowable work-around, then we simply can’t build the homes in very large parts of the country that we’ve promised. The PM has now indicated that he is backing Michael.”

Defra is fiercely opposed to the change and The Times’ Clean it Up campaign has also urged the government to keep the rules.

Tony Juniper, the chairman of Natural England, said: “Nutrient neutrality is established in UK environmental law and has been tested in the courts. It rightly prevents wastewater from new housing developments adding to pollution in areas internationally protected because of their unique value to nature and wildlife.”

He said that scrapping the rules would endanger legal targets to turn around “terrifying declines” in species. Juniper added: “We simply cannot halt and reverse the decline in nature or improve the quality of our rivers — as the government has legally committed itself to doing and is rightly demanded by the public — if we don’t mitigate the impact of pollution sources.”

Water campaigners said that ditching the protections would be disastrous in areas already under pressure from sewage and farm pollution, with only 14 per cent of English rivers considered to be in “good” ecological condition.

James Wallace, the chief executive of River Action, a charity that supports community river groups around the country, said: “Our rivers are in crisis. Nutrient neutrality rules provide a glimmer of hope for some of our most protected rivers by ensuring development does not further add to pollution of rivers. It is absolutely absurd for the government to roll back on this.”

Professor Peter Hammond, of the environmental group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, said that the regulations were also needed to improve monitoring of sewage spills and run-off from farms. He said that dropping the rules would be bad for “public health and biodiversity”.

However, a spokesman for the Home Builders Federation said that a failure to act would have a devastating impact on pressing housing needs, adding: “The government has allowed this situation to drag on for four years and a solution is desperately needed. Builders are going out of business and around 145,000 desperately needed homes are on hold, despite the fact their construction would have a negligible impact on river pollution.”

A government spokesperson said: “The government remains committed to delivering housing in areas impacted by nutrient neutrality and is supporting local authorities and developers. We recognise the urgency of this issue and have taken substantial steps to both unlock housing now and to address the underlying causes of nutrient pollution at source.”