Paul Arnott 

Most of us will have sat in a room at some time where just about everyone present is moaning. Often with good cause. My approach to that has always been, give the moaners a hearing, throw a moan into the mix myself if needed, but don’t leave till you have spent just as much time suggesting solutions.

Here are two common moans. First, the country is not building enough new homes to meet the demand. Second, a combination of new building and poor practice in agriculture is causing devastating pollution in our streams and rivers.

A couple of years ago, these issues became linked. Natural England, the organisation entrusted with making sure we do not allow our environment to be irreversibly wrecked, reported that this pollution was getting worse, unsustainably so. The particular problem was discharging phosphates into rivers, 70% of which came from agriculture, but 30% from new build projects.

Just around Easter 2022, East Devon District Council received a letter from Natural England, instructing us to cease making any progress with giving planning consent in most of the Axe Valley. By which they also meant large parts of west Dorset and south Somerset which feed into the Axe lower down.

I found myself at a house a few weeks back in a village a few miles south of Crewkerne. The host told me he’d wanted to build a small structure in his garden but had been informed by Somerset County Council that there was no point even applying for permission while the ban was in place. It’s not just Axminster affected.

East Devon councillors have been made well aware that the construction industry is up in arms about this, saying that most of the phosphate pollution is caused by agriculture and not by them. “Most “being the operative word. They are still causing pollution.

Last week Michael Gove, who runs the government department overseeing development, made a typically confusing announcement. The country needs more homes, the ban on construction in some areas is blocking that, therefore he is lifting the ban on construction. Oh, and just to show that he has not forgotten that phosphates are a problem, he announced a £250 million fund to help farmers clean up their act, about a zero short of what is really needed.

And just to throw a bit of red meat to his right wing, he boasted that he can do this now because we are no longer in Europe, despite his and Mr Johnson’s multiple assertions that leaving the EU would not be allowed to diminish our environmental protection in future. Who now can be even mildly surprised that it was a lie then and a lie now?

Mr Gove’s party is of course massively dependant on funding and political support from the construction industry. He knows full well that by Christmas next year the Conservatives will be in opposition, so he’s doing one for his mates on the way out of the door. It stinks, literally so.

So, what’s the solution? I would suggest a National Housing Commission, cross-party, is set up as an emergency intervention to last at least a decade. Clause One is “don’t screw up the environment”, and there is no reason not to achieve this. Then it needs to look at the catastrophic loss of social housing stock and, commissioning through local councils who understand the need and the unique characteristics of their areas, get delivering, training up the local workforce in the process. The Tories have had every chance since 2010 to do that. A fresh new government needs to get this going from the get-go.