A WILTSHIRE housing association has written to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner pleading for her help over an ‘under thought’ pollution rule that is delaying plans for social housing in rural areas.

Mrs Rayner (Lab, Ashton-under-Lyne), who is also Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government, is spearheading the new Labour Government’s mission for housebuilding.

Now, a letter from White Horse Housing Association chief executive, Steve Warran, claims Nutrient Neutrality regulations are adding an extra financial burden to developments and making them unviable.

The regulations are imposed on local authorities by Natural England, forcing them to seek compensation from developers to protect rivers from pollution and sewage run-offs from new homes.

However, Mr Warran said the rules unfairly impact rural areas, where there is less infrastructure.

White Horse has 430 homes in rural areas across Wiltshire and Somerset but, Mr Warran said, it is being hampered in trying to meet the needs of countryside communities because building more is being made unviable by the regulations.

In his letter, he quoted the example of a project for six two and three-bedroomed homes in Knighton Road, Broad Chalke, near Salisbury, for rental and shared ownership, in partnership with the Broad Chalke Community Land Trust, which has taken eight years to get off the ground.

Broad Chalke Community Land Trust chairman Dan Richter, left, treasurer Tom Hitchings and board member Ian Walkden with White Horse Housing Association Operations Director Belinda Eastland at the site in the village where six new affordable homes are being blocked by Nutrient Neutrality regulations

“This development fully complies with the Broad Chalke Neighbourhood Plan … funding is secured and planning approval has been granted,” he wrote.

“However, the whole project suddenly had to be halted because of Wiltshire Council’s recent Nutrient Neutrality policy.

“Overall, our scheme is calculated to produce 7.5kg of phosphate which represents just a tiny fraction of this massive problem.

“The council does, however, have a plan to mitigate this problem – a plan that will demand a payment from us of over £290,000 – a payment that would render the scheme totally unviable.

“So here we are at the twelfth hour, with the community we have been working with now disillusioned, disappointed and deflated because another blockage, another obstacle, another well-meaning but under thought initiative, has been forced upon the planning system and wiped out all the hard work and ambition of local people trying to bring forward affordable homes for their community.”

Broad Chalke Parish Council chair, Tom Hitchings, who is the CLT’s treasurer, said the trust is concerned about any new development affecting the River Ebble in the village, which is an ancient chalk stream.

“We aren’t saying we want the scheme to be exempt from the Nutrient Neutrality regulations because we don’t care about the river being polluted, far from it,” he said.

“We just want any required measures to be funded by some other means so that these badly needed homes for local people can be built.”

Broad Chalke Community Land Trust chairman Dan Richter, left, board member Ian Walkden and treasurer Tom Hitchings with White Horse Housing Association Operations Director Belinda Eastland at the River Ebble in the village

Mr Warran said the issue with Nutrient Neutrality is replicated across the country, with thousands of affordable homes being left in limbo.

He has asked Mrs Rayner to meet him and other housing associations to discuss the issue and proposed that social housing projects be excluded from the regulations.

“What is the point of trying to regulate nutrient neutrality in our rivers when this policy blocks the basic right of a decent affordable home for those people who are excluded from buying one themselves due to low incomes, disability or poverty?” he said.

The housing association boss said he was driven to write the letter because of his dismay at the frustration experienced in Broad Chalke, where years of hard work – estimated at 4,500 hours of volunteer time – has been wasted.

“With the new government making housing such a central issue in its early days I hope this will be a cue for the rules to be relaxed to unlock much-needed housebuilding all across the country and particularly here in Wiltshire,” he said. “We await the Deputy PM’s reply with interest.”

Labour has pledged to build million new homes over the course of the parliament, and in recent days – as the party’s conference got underway in Liverpool – Ms Rayner said social and affordable homes would play a part in the plan and hinted at new measures in the upcoming Autumn Statement.

“Unless we address the social and council housing problem in this country, then we’re really not going to get to the root problem of the housing crisis for everybody,” she told a meeting at the conference.

“I actually think it’s a moral mission with the Labour government to recognise the problem and to build the social housing we need.

“I’ve been honest about not putting a figure on that today, because there’s a lot of moving parts within that. But hopefully at the spending review, you’ll see that this government is really serious that we’re going to build those houses we desperately need.

“It’s a moral mission for our government, and if it wasn’t, then what’s Labour for if we’re not building safe and secure homes that people need?”

For more about White Horse housing Association services, go to whitehorsehousing.co.uk.