HM Government: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) – Supplementary written evidence (IER0042)

I would like to thank you and other members of the Built Environment Committee for your time on the 11th July 2023. As agreed at our session, I am following up on a few of the issues raised.

Nutrient pollution in the River Wye

During the session you requested more information on action being taken to address nutrient pollution in the River Wye, particularly measures that are being taken to address run off from existing and new farms in the area.

As set out in our Environmental Improvement Plan, protecting our protected sites, including the Wye Special Area of Conservation (SAC) from agricultural water pollution will be crucial to reversing the decline of England’s nature and wildlife. The River Wye is an important natural asset hosting important freshwater species including Atlantic Salmon, the Bullhead fish and Otters.

The Wye was recently downgraded by Natural England from ‘Unfavourable Improving’ to ‘Unfavourable Declining’ because of the decline numbers of Salmon, Macrophytes and White-Clawed Crayfish, although water quality remains stable since the previous review.

This estimated annual surplus in nutrients in the area, in combination with generally high soil phosphorus levels across the UK owing to legacy fertiliser practices going back decades, make reducing soil erosion and running down soil phosphorus levels top priorities. Given poultry farmers generally export their manure to other farm types, improving the use of manure and reducing soil loss is essential to mitigate the risks from chicken farming alongside all other farm types.

The government, Environment Agency and Natural England are taking the necessary action in the Wye in close cooperation with Natural Resources Wales, Herefordshire Council, local environmental groups and food and farming businesses.

To reduce soil erosion, we are:

•                         Introducing an ambitious package of Sustainable Farming Incentive standards in 2023, paying farmers for 4-12 metre wide water body buffers on grassland, arable and horticulture fields, multi-species winter cover crops, herbal leys, hedgerow maintenance, and grassy field corners.
•                         Providing Catchment Sensitive Farming advice across the whole of England, ensuring every farmer has access to face-to-face expert advice on reducing soil erosion and nutrient runoff in the course of normal farm planning, and by selecting the right incentive and grant schemes for their situation. CSF has been active in the Wye catchment since 2006 and has made over 4000 recommendations to about 700 farms. It’s estimated that the implementation of CSF recommendations has re- duced agricultural phosphorus annual loads in the Wye catchment by 8.5%

To improve nutrient management practices so that phosphorus is not unnecessarily added to soil, we are:

•                         Providing £34 million through year 1 of the Slurry Infrastructure Grant scheme, with £1.2 million allocated to farms in the Wye catchment. We expect to allocate more funding, offering to pay for a wider range of items, in our year 2 offer. These grants will help livestock farmers spread their manures are low risk times when the nutrients will fuel crop growth and be exported as food rather than remain in the soil.
•                         Funding the Environment Agency to conduct over 4,000 farm inspections in each fiscal year, targeted at the areas of the greatest risk including the catchments of protected sites which are affected by agricultural pollution. EA officers scrutinise manure use by taking actions including inspecting farm nutrient management plans and checking manure stores are sufficient and safe. More than half of all farm inspections carried out by the Environment Agency across the West Midlands from April 2022-February 2023 took place in the Wye catchment.

Poultry farming is more densely concentrated in the Wye than in other parts of England, which is why measures to reduce the risk of large quantities of poultry manure were discussed during the River Wye Roundtable hosted by the Secretary of State in Hereford on 30 May. The Roundtable discussed the need for better information for farmers to help them calculate the phosphorus losses from their land and better use of technology to help farmers export poultry manure as an easily managed fertiliser.

There are opportunities to use technology to improve the use of poultry manure as a fertiliser and reduce the risk of it being spread inappropriately. In East Anglia poultry litter is used for biogas generation and returned to farmers as a phosphorus-rich bagged product that can be readily transported and stored until needed. We understand local food businesses in the Wye are pursuing similar opportunities, subject to the normal planning and permitting process.

The Secretary of State committed to respond to the Roundtable setting out the action government will take within 3 months.

BNG and brownfield sites

I agreed to send you more detail of the departments’ analysis of the impact BNG on the delivery of sites on brownfield land. The department has conducted the following:

•                         We consulted on brownfield sites as part of our Biodiversity Net Gain Policy and Legislation consultation in 2022 and confirmed through our consultation response that we are not applying an exemption for brownfield sites as it would deliver little added benefit whilst complicating the BNG requirement for developers and local planning authorities.
•                         86% of respondents agreed with our proposal not to exempt brownfield sites from the mandatory BNG requirement.
•                         Whilst the ability to achieve BNG will depend on baseline conditions, in practice many brownfield sites offer significant potential for achieving biodiversity net gain because they have a low pre-development biodiversity value. Brownfield sites are mostly situated in urban and suburban locations and including them in the requirement supports our intention for biodiversity net gain to benefit people as well as wildlife.
•                         Brownfield developments only involving the redevelopment of buildings or sealed surfaces will be automatically exempt, as will those impacting habitat below the de minimis threshold.
•                         Inclusion of brownfield remediation will depend on whether the remediation has any impact on habitat quality. If remediation involves removing pollutants that poi- son any vegetation or removing a derelict hard standing area or fuel tanks, then this will improve the site. However, if remediation involves removing contaminated soil that was already beneficial for wildlife, then this will not contribute to BNG.
•                         There are already developers who are working towards achieving 10% net gains on their developments. Berkeley Homes are working with London Wildlife Trust to deliver biodiversity net gain in south-east London.
•                         This particular brownfield development will include 4,800 new homes over the next twenty years alongside 20 hectares of parkland connecting it to nature reserves at Kidbrooke Green and Birdbrook.
•                         This is an excellent example of a new housing development making a positive contribution to nature, and to the health and wellbeing of people who live, well before the mandatory requirement has begun.
•                         There is widespread land that may be affected by contamination due to previous uses but a relatively small number of sites that have been formally determined by regulators as posing a significant risk to human health or the environment. In 2021-22 54% of new residential addresses were created on previously developed land, often referred to as brownfield land.

Government’s support for SMEs

In July 2022 we launched the Nutrient Mitigation Scheme (NMS) led by Natural England and pump-primed with up to £30m in public investment to accelerate the provision of nutrient credits for sale to developers. The NMS made its first credits available for sale in the Tees and Cleveland Coast catchment on 31 March 2023, unlocking more than 1,400 homes, with work underway to identify suitable projects in other catchments with high housing demand this financial year.

Work is underway to identify suitable projects in other catchments with high housing demand including in Norfolk and Somerset this financial year. Natural England is ringfencing a significant proportion of the credits they create for SME developers

As announced at Budget 2023, government opened the first round of expression of interest in May that will financially support local mitigation schemes led by Local Planning Authorities. Funding decisions will be made as quickly as possible this summer.

July 2023