Nutrients: to what extent is new housebuilding responsible?

Today HBF has published a new report by Brookbanks that examines the extent to which new housebuilding contributes to the issue of nutrient emissions.

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The report finds that new housebuilding will contribute less than one per cent each year to nutrient emissions flowing into waterways via the sewerage system.?Based on an assumption of 230,000 housing completions each year, and assuming that each home is occupied by 2.4 new people, the report calculates that the overall proportion of Total Nitrogen generated is 0.29% and for Total Phosphorus it is 0.73%.

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Even this may represent an overestimation, as research last year for HBF by Lichfields found that the 2.4 person per dwelling assumption advised by Natural England tended to overestimate true occupancy levels.

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The report demonstrates that the ongoing delay to housebuilding is unnecessary and unjustified. Delaying housebuilding will make no meaningful impression on improving water quality, but it will have grave consequences for those in housing need and the livelihood of housebuilding companies operating in the areas subject to the restriction.

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My thanks to Dean Swann and Siobhan McGlynn for their hard work producing the report.