The unintended consequence of Angela Rayner’s nature tax

Political office does odd things to parties which were in opposition. Angela Rayner and Steve Reed have written in the Sunday Times this morning complaining that environmental rules are threatening the government’s house-building targets. We’re in a situation, they say, ‘where bats and newts are getting in the way of people who desperately need housing.’ They are not wrong. One of the reasons why there are 1.2 million would-be homes which have been granted planning permission over the past decade but which have yet to be built is that pettifogging green rules are standing in their way. Three of those ghost homes are in my village. Nutrient neutrality rules and an overloaded local sewage system led to a condition being attached to their planning permissions: the houses would each have to have a mini sewage treatment works, costing around £12,000. Not only is this expensive, it turns out that the draining system granted planning permission might not actually be sufficient for net neutrality.