On 13 September, the House of Lords has the opportunity to block the Government’s extraordinary decision to weaken vital legal protection for our rivers. It is vital to Wiltshire’s precious chalk streams – much loved by families for wild swimming and a lifeline for threatened wildlife - that they succeed.

Wiltshire is home to a globally important chalk stream, the Salisbury Avon, and its tributaries: the Wylye, Nadder, Bourne and Ebble. These sparkling chalk streams are a lifeline for threatened wildlife like water voles and brown trout. It is no accident that David Attenborough chose to introduce the Wild Isles freshwater episode from a boat on the River Wylye.

Now our Wiltshire chalk streams are under threat from the Government’s announcement that it will be scrapping the ‘Nutrient Neutrality’ law, following lobbying by housebuilders. The Government’s own watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, has written to the Secretary of State to make clear that scrapping Nutrient Neutrality law would break repeated Government promises not to weaken environmental legal protections after Brexit.

Nutrient Neutrality law simply stops river pollution getting worse. It requires housebuilders to pay to offset new pollution caused by new developments. Every new house built results in more sewage being produced – and sewage works are already failing, with repeated discharges of raw sewage. Even when treated, the effluent from sewage works is adding harmful nutrients, which cause an increased growth of algae. This results in decreased levels of dissolved oxygen, which can choke our rivers, killing fish and other aquatic life. Our chalk streams are particularly vulnerable to nutrient pollution, because nutrients get concentrated when water levels get low in summer.

No. Nutrient neutrality is a cost that housebuilders would prefer not to pay out of their profits, but not a barrier to new homes where they are needed. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is working alongside nature-friendly farmers like the Wylye Farmers Group and the Environmental Farmers Group to create wetlands and help farms reduce run-off to offset the pollution, using funding from ‘Nutrient Neutrality credits’ paid for by developers. The Housebuilders Federation claimed that 100,000 homes across England are not being built as a result, but at least 70,000 of these have planning permission already thanks to these offsetting solutions.

Pulling the rug out from under the embryonic Nutrient Neutrality credits market also risks wrecking confidence in biodiversity net gain and carbon markets and turning off vital investment in nature-based solutions.

No. Spending plans can be scrapped overnight and are no substitute for legal protection. And the plan takes a hatchet to the ‘Polluter Pays’ principle, by making taxpayers pick up the bill for river pollution instead of housebuilders. Under the proposed changes to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, instead of making developers pay to offset their pollution, the Government will increase funding to the nutrient mitigation scheme run by Natural England - meaning that taxpayers rather than builders will pay to prevent pollution.

It is still possible to stop this and save our chalk streams. The House of Lords will vote on 12 September on what is known as a ‘wrecking amendment’ by the Duke of Wellington to nullify the Government plan. If the Lords vote to block the plan, the legislation will go back to the House of Commons for another vote by MPs.

Your MPs have the opportunity to persuade the Government to drop their deeply damaging plan. They need to hear from you that this is a big ‘own-goal’ ahead of the coming General Election, because voters here in Wiltshire care deeply about clean water and wildlife in our rivers.

Please write to your MP today, and ask them to speak up against the Government plan to scrap nutrient neutrality and make river pollution even worse here in Wiltshire.

See https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/defend-nature for details of how to write to your MP, or send them a tweet to save our rivers.

Thankyou for your support!