You can now access areas impacted by Nutrient Neutrality, helping keep you on top of a particularly prickly consideration for your new developments!
What is Nutrient Neutrality?
Nutrient Neutrality was introduced by Natural England as a means of combating eutrophication of protected water bodies, in particular SPAs, SACs and Ramsar sites. The areas affected represent the natural catchments of watercourses which flow into these areas. It's a tough one to mitigate, so we're here to help as much as we can.
How large is the area being impacted by this?
As of March 2023, these areas now cover up to 17.7% of England and Wales - a huge swathe of the country. It's important you know where these areas are, and we want to help you do that.
What does it mean for my development?
Within these areas development is currently constrained as there is a requirement for no new sources of nutrients (mainly phosphates and nitrogen) to be released into the catchment. In areas affected by Nutrient Neutrality, large developments can be a particular problem. Mitigation schemes are being worked out on an authority by authority basis, but these still represent extra cost and design considerations.
Where can I access this data?
You can access Nutrient Neutrality within the planning policy dropdown. You'll find it located under significant constraints, and is called 'Nutrient Neutrality'.
It'll be off by default for you, so you'll need to switch it on to see this data on the map.
What data is shown to me?
We'll show you information on;
Whether mitigation is possible within the planning authority
A link to the mitigation scheme or position statement, from the planning authority
Nutrients of concern within the impacted area
Where does this data come from?
Good question! We've built a bespoke dataset to keep you ahead of the game.
We source data from Natural England, the Environment Agency and their equivalent Welsh body Natural Resources Wales. Once we have this, we then combine this with data from each respective planning authority - giving you the richest possible view we can.
Whether mitigation is possible is sourced directly from each local planning authority and identifies whether they have signed up to any of the off-site mitigation schemes that are currently in operation.
How can I provide feedback?
We think the above will give you everything you need. However, you can get in touch with us via the in-app chat if you have any further questions and we'll do our best to answer them for you. We think this is best in market data, and we hope you agree.