As many report this morning, and as summarised by Politico in its morning email (which I recommend):
Leveling-Up Secretary Michael Gove is set to announce this morning that he is ripping up rules that restrict pollution from new-build homes. That'll settle an apparent months-long standoff between his department and Defra, but open a whole new front in the battle over the environment. The “nutrient neutrality” rules are hated by housebuilders and some Tory MPs, which say they hold housing back. But green groups are already furious.
Of course green groups are furious. These rules are intended, as they stand, to stop housing development from increasing the level of water pollution in our rivers and streams, which is already overwhelming many of them.
As Craig Bennett, CEO of the Wildlife Trusts, put it on Twitter:
To be as polite as possible about this, that cuts through the crap and spells things out exactly as they are.
To put it another way, big money is beating the environment, yet again.
For how long do we have to put up with this? Is it until there is nothing left, ourselves included, to save? Or will we one day realise that human degradation of our planet has to end? We are not there yet.
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As expected, the Tory wreckers are beginning their final push before they are eventually turfed out next year. I expect them to continue to push crap like this through (pun intended) which will leave the next government with the choice to either spend time and political capital reversing these policy changes or, more likely, do little more than watering them down.
I wonder how many ‘advisory roles’ we’ll see soon-to-be former Tory MPs rocking up in at house builders and other industries who will benefit by relaxation of regulations?
Further evidence that the Tories will take whatever policy stance they believe will give them a short term polling advantage irrespective of the consequences.Labour remain frightened of their own shadow.
Give them a break! I confess I never thought I would ever agree with Nadine Dorries (ex)-MP; until I heard Douglas Ross MP (Scottish Conservative ‘leader’) on BBC GMS this morning, and realised that when Dorries spoke of Sunak’s Zombie Parliament, she must have had Douglas Ross and his Zombie Scottish Conservatives specifically in mind.
Interviewed on Scotland’s economy, a subject on which candidly Ross has quite obviously no knowledge or understanding whatsoever to contribute; soon required him to explain away Britain’s flatlining economy and dire economic predicament as entirely caused by the ‘pandemic’; and when that didn’t quite work, it was all caused by ‘external’ problems – so nuthin’ to do with the Conservatives running the Government and economy, then – or ross for that matter.
Never has a BBC interviewer had it so easy, dismantling a fool.
Vile-Tory funding: oil n gas mafia, finance-parasite sector, jerry-built construction sector. Thus the only open question left is what bung was offered to vile-Gove or the vile-tories for this particular piece of action.
I’m not sure I agree with Mr White, re short-term polling advantage – vile-tories are heading for a wipe out, this is vile-Gove moving a few pieces to make sure that some level of bribes & bungs continue to flow, post-wipe out, after all the vile-tory party has to be funded somehow.
Ah well, UK/England, the first post-industrial failed state. The situation is partly analogous to 1910, when the electorates choice was vile-tory or vile-tory-lite aka Liberals – with a nascent Labour party that only came to prominance post WW1 (said war could be characterised as an action by Germany/France/UK to suppress the threat posed by socialism). The difference this time round is the 3 “main” parties are all shit, & mostly resemble one another. Lib-Dems, a variation on vile-liebore/vile-tory (& some of the Lib-Dem troops are very unhappy with the leadership btw). And, sitting in the background the accelerating climate disaster. Next summer, the full effects of El Nino will be felt = probably very long, very very hot summer, with a lame-slug tory gov with no legitimacy. Interesting times.
The Conservatives are in a slash, burn and “as well hanged for a sheep” mode.
Doing anything to self enrich and if it leaves Labour a smelly bag of fiscal and social problems that’s a bonus.
The Conservatives are not dealing with problems and difficult situations. The Conservatives are creating them as ammunition for the next election. A fine article by Rafael Behr.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/09/britain-conservatives-government-bibby-stockholm?CMP=share_btn_tw&s=09
I’ve got to be honest with you and say that Gove’s move here is even more potentially destructive that at first sight.
It’s not just about poo.
It may also be about land remediation too and contaminants. My housing org’ has just purchased a number of new bungalows on an ex-industrial site that was covered in sumps containing all sorts of chemical filth.
The developer would not have developed it because of the cost of contamination remediation held back development for years.
The local authority helped by waiving its Section 106 rights (that 11% of the new build homes on this brownfield site were made available for affordable housing) to help the developer out. We bought our units at market prices.
However, even with that help, the private developer – like other developers – have suffered additional costs directly because of government policy and this has meant that the scheme was really late completing and it completed with severe quality issues (we had to reject all of them as they were handed over):
1) BREXIT harming the labour force with fewer workers chasing jobs – increased wages and costs of recruiting.
2) BREXIT harming supply chains, pushing up prices, disrupting supplies = delays.
3) Covid disruption, poor management of and bounce back effects.
4. Inflation and interest rate rises caused by poor prior strategic planning and stupid ideas about how to control inflation.
5. Non -existent regulation of utility supply and a confused over crowded utility market.
So to sum up, what Gove has produced is nothing but a contrived problem with environmental standards to cover up the policy incompetence of his government which is the real problem and the real source of more cost for developers.
You could not make up the amount of disingenuousness here yourself if you tried.
It takes a certain type of person to be this dishonest and there are too many of this type of person in our politics.
I’d have a Gove up against a wall for this – he’s made me really angry.
He’s a despicable character in a despicable government.
Than ks PSR
That helps add colour – or another brown stain
I forgot to add that it was the stupid Tories who also ended the government’s brownfield site remediation grant regime in 2017 after running it down.
It’s stuff like this that makes it harder and more expensive for developers – not sensible policies concerning protecting the water supply and inland waterways from pollution.
Evan Davis interviewed Gove on PM today and it was pathetic. Gove got a smooth ride yet again.
“It takes a certain type of person to be this dishonest and there are too many of this type of person in our politics.” Well, Gove’s just the man to fit that description. His childhood may have been spent in Scotland, but he’s detested here for his patronising attitude and smugness, his persistent lying and deceitfulness, as well as his transparent contempt for the land of his upbringing, by all but the Tories (and it would be no surprise if many of them dislike and distrust him too).
How do appalling people like Gove and Dorries get the public to elect them to office?
Ken my dear chap, the answer to your question is: Money. Lots of money.
PSR, there is one gain for Brexit, although tories wouldn’t think so.
Even Brexiteers blame Brexit for the government’s inability to stop the boats, according to an opinium poll in the i.
Brexiteers can’t do irony.
Just another excuse by property developers and house builders to evade doing what we actually need. Whether it’s:
– providing the levels and types of housing needed
– installing solar panels or heat pumps
– including the levels of insulation needed
– avoiding any responsibility for the supporting infrastructure needed
– etc, etc
They just want to build highly profitable executive homes on greenfield sites, flashy apartments for hot money, or the lowest quality smallest homes they can get away with. They sit on potential development sites whilst local governments lack the power and resources to force them to deliver what is needed. PSR will know better than I but that was the consistent message coming from a number of councils I spoke to last year, all very frustrated.
Interesting article here about council housing, PSR.
https://labouroutlook.org/2023/08/30/ending-right-to-buy-is-a-necessary-step-towards-resolving-the-housing-crisis/
However, there is one thing I don’t understand in it, apart from Lisa Nandy’s u-turns.
Wicks implies that development corporations are not the same as councils, and I always thought they were similar.
In the 70s and 80s my husband was an architect working for Peterborough Development Corporation. They built a newtown around the old city, with lots of tenants from London overspill, as well as a big shopping centre in the middle of it, marrying up the old with the new. When the DC closed down in the late 80s I thought all the housing was transferred to the city council.
What is the difference between a DC and a city council as far as building houses is concerned? Is there any reason to be suspicious of DCs?
It’s worth revisiting this tweet from @RussInCheshire :
“The Tory party’s emotional support turbot, Michael Gove, wrapped things up by saying the [New Conservatives] conference had been ‘evidence of the intellectual energy we have in the centre-right’.
There’s a fine line between madness and genius, and Gove appears to have snorted that line.”
Says it all about this woeful excuse even for a Tory as far as I’m concerned.
Given the documented financial support for Conservatives from big builders and property companies – isnt this straight corruption? Why isnt it simply criminal?
David Byrne says:
The increasing levels of pollution of our waterways and coastal environment are being under-emphasised by our miserable UK media sources.
The words water pollution are easy to digest (ugh), but the key issue and danger is disease and it’s consequences for the nation’s health.
Let us call upon the medical profession to clearly detail the seriousness of this issue. Is it just cholera, typhoid, hepatitis and Covid that lurk in our waters?
The total context of water-borne diseases must be spelled out and repeatedly emphasised to our zombie nation until we can see the well-fertilised green shoots of understanding appear.
The Tory killers benefit from having private medical insurance, no doubt, so it’s ok then!
The rest of us can meet up in hospital and discuss this massive issue in the recovery room. Failing that, heaven or hell depending upon St Peter’s discretionary powers.
This problem is deathly ******* serious!
Amen.
Agreed
Polio also found in London sewage water last year, for quite a few months, and said to have been passed on to a few people.
I remember going to a sewage works in the 70s when studying environmental science and we were all offered a glass of water to drink at the end. Nobody was cowardly enough to back out. I bet they don’t do that nowadays.
Last week we were asked to run our cold taps for 40 minutes to get rid of discoloured water in the pipes. That’s never happened before in the 13 years I’ve lived here. In the early 70s in a village occasionally fed by water from a water tower in the middle of the village, discoloured water was a regular feature.
“Gove’s department for levelling up, housing and communities said that while nutrients entering rivers was “a real” problem, the contribution made by new homes was “very small”.
He said: “Of course, our rivers aren’t as clean as they should be, but they are cleaner than they have been in the past.”
Challenged by presenter John Pienaar that pollution was in-fact worse, Gove replied: “No, no, I want to pick you up on that.”
“Actually, we’ve seen record levels of investment between 2020 and 2025… England will be spending more on improving its water than other European countries.”
Very clever of Gove. He knows how much investment there has been in 2024/5.
Rivers cleaner than they have been in the past could mean compared with before there was a sewage system, when people were peeing in buckets and throwing it out into the street, e.g., in the middle ages, or even pre-Victorian times.
Goive is talking total shit. In this case, that’s a technical term.