‘Cash to trash’ levy on house developers too low to offset damage to Norfolk Broads, say critics

The Norfolk Broads are a heavily protected wetland network of 60 shallow lakes and winding rivers, home to some of England’s rarest species. Photograph: SPK/Alamy View image in fullscreen The Norfolk Broads are a heavily protected wetland network of 60 shallow lakes and winding rivers, home to some of England’s rarest species. Photograph: SPK/Alamy ‘Cash to trash’ levy on house developers too low to offset damage to Norfolk Broads, say critics Exclusive: Levy that allows almost 16,000 houses to be built on Norfolk Broads will not cover cost of mitigating environmental damage, critics say A new levy on developers to allow almost 16,000 homes to be built in the environmentally protected Norfolk Broads has been cut , the Guardian can reveal. Ministers say the government’s environmental delivery plans (EDPs) were created to unblock housing growth across the country and are a “win-win” for development and nature. They allow environmental damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked as long as developers pay into a nature restoration fund, which is used for conservation actions at a later date designed to address the impacts. Once the first instalment of the fee is paid, work can start immediately. Labelled “cash to trash”, the first EDP was published last week ’s nature adviser, Natural England. It allows 15,780 houses to be built within the Norfolk Broads, a heavily protected wetland network of 60 shallow lakes and winding rivers that is home to some of England’s rarest species. View image in fullscreen The development is expected to cause increased nutrient pollution from a rise in sewage pollution and urban run-off into protected chalk stream rivers. Photograph: Tim CochraneThe published plan, which is open for consultation for 28 days, states that the developer will pay £2,675 per house – £42m in total – into the nature restoration fund to cover compensatory actions including fenland creation and restoration, a change in use of agricultural land to semi-natural habitat, catch-dyke restoration and deer management. But a previous draft of the EDP, seen , set the levy much higher. Ecologists said this was to properly reflect the realistic costs of mitigating the increased nutrient pollution from increased sewage pollution and urban run-off into protected chalk stream rivers – the Wensum, Bure and Yare – caused . The fee was to be between £5,400 and £60,500 per house, depending on the scale of total nutrient pollution that the development would cause. MapThe fenlands, marshes, bogs and mires of the Broads are a biodiversity hotspot, home to more than a quarter of the rarest wildlife in the UK such as the otter, cuckoo and fen orchid.