As the Good Law Project walk around Devon (Exmouth) with a bottle of dirty water, asking locals their thoughts on water companies dumping sewage into our rivers and seas. These are the reactions.

[The Good Law Project are backing Jo Bateman in her case against South west Water]

Build houses now, fix pollution later, Labour to tell developers

Leave it to developers and it will never happen. – Owl

Developers will be able to start building housing projects that risk polluting rivers and work out how to deal with the problem during construction, under plans to unblock 160,000 homes.

Chris Smyth www.thetimes.com

Labour has begun the process of changing environmental protections after blocking Conservative attempts to rip up “nutrient neutrality” rules before the election.

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Steve Reed, the environment secretary, have told environmental groups that current rules are “not working” and that they want to find ways of restarting housing developments that have been put on hold.

Natural England effectively imposed a moratorium on a string of projects two years ago by ruling that developments in designated areas would only be allowed if the builders could show they would not increase levels of phosphorus or nitrogen in waterways. These can reduce the oxygen in the water, causing the deaths of invertebrates, which in turn reduces food supplies for protected bird species.

Last year Labour defeated the Conservative government’s attempt to allow councils to set aside these rules, saying it would mean the loss of environmental protections. That prompted Tory accusations that the party would struggle to take the decisions needed to hit its target of building 1.5 million homes.

Now Reed and Rayner have written to environmental groups saying the rules need to change. “When it comes to the planning system’s role in providing the nature and housing we need, we know that the status quo is not working,” they said.

“We want to use the value gained from enabling development to proceed quickly and smoothly to support nature recovery — and to do so in a way that gives everyone involved greater certainty.”

Under the proposed model, developers would be allowed to begin work and agree mitigations during construction, rather than beforehand. This could see them, for example, agreeing to fund the creation of new wetland areas elsewhere to offset pollution from new homes.

Labour said new homes could only be occupied once the mitigations were in place, arguing that this would speed up development without compromising the environment.

“We will only legislate if we are confident that it achieves these outcomes,” Rayner and Reed wrote, insisting that they wanted proper consultation with environmental groups.

Changes to the nutrient neutrality rules are expected to come in the planning bill announced in last week’s King’s Speech. This is likely to become law next year and Labour ministers hope that this will kickstart the 160,000 homes that the Homebuilders Federation estimates have been put on hold because of the current rules.

“Nature recovery remains a top priority alongside the need to overhaul the planning system, grow the economy and reach net zero,” Rayner and Reed wrote. “This is not a matter of choosing one of these priorities over another. Sustained economic growth depends upon a healthy natural environment.”

The Conservatives are likely to accuse Labour of hypocrisy, but ministers insist that the Tory solution was defective and that they can find a “win-win” solution for home building and the environment.

Labour is relying on a housebuilding boom to kickstart the economy and allow more cash for public services, and has already announced the return of mandatory housing targets for councils. Detailed changes to planning rules are expected to be set out before the end of the month to ensure that new developments can begin immediately.