Westmorland and Furness Council has gone out to tender with a contract to deliver permanent nutrient neutrality mitigation in Cumbria via septic tanks upgrades worth an estimated £10.5 million.

With nutrient neutrality requirements being enforced at off-mains properties in areas of England, homeowners need to understand the benefits of non-chemical package treatment plants, writes Andrew Baird, technical director at WCS Environmental Engineering.

Floodex has announced the speaker programme for the free to attend seminars at the upcoming Floodex UK 2024 conference and exhibition which takes place later this month at Excel in London on 27^th and 28^th November.

Thirty nature and climate groups - including RSPB, The Wildlife Trust, National Trust, Woodland Trust, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth - have published a joint statement and policy paper calling on political parties to reform the planning system to prioritise renewable energy and nature-restoration.

The government has set out measures to tackle pollution at source and enable the construction of thousands of homes, as it publishes a list of over 140 wastewater treatment works legally required to be upgraded in areas affected by nutrient neutrality advice.

The Government was defeated on two key votes in the House of Lords last night in its attempt to change existing legislation on nutrient neutrality for housing developments which protect river water quality and to give itself powers to further amend protections without proper scrutiny.

Proposed changes to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill will reduce the level of environmental protection provided for in law and amount to a regression, the Office for Environmental Protection is warning.

The Government has confirmed its plan to relax nutrient neutrality rules by amending the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill – saying that “over 100,000 homes held up due to defective EU laws will be unblocked between now and 2030” as a result.

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is calling for a national pilot scheme to be established in the UK by 2025, to make treatment wetlands the default option for meeting new nutrient neutrality targets and to establish and develop an effective market in nutrient trading and offsetting by creating a nutrient offsetting code.

Somerset Council is hoping to secure Government funding to deliver phosphate mitigation measures which will unlock the delivery of 18,000 new homes across the area and provide for longer term nature recovery.