The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has issued a Direction to Natural England on measures to address nutrient pollution via strategic mitigation schemes which has been implemented with immediate effect.

A United Utilities programme to encourage sustainable water use and drainage in new homes has saved developers more than £40 million and created potential for saving 3.8 million litres of water a day.

New plans announced by the Government to help safeguard England’s protected sites by driving down nutrient pollution will place a new legal duty on water companies in England to upgrade wastewater treatment works by 2030 in ‘nutrient neutrality’ areas to the highest achievable technological levels.

Thames Water will offer discounts to housing developers who commit to building new properties fitted with low water using devices like showers and washing machines and use rainwater or ‘grey water’ for toilet flushing and watering plants.

Over 40 property developers and housing association members attended Welsh Water’s developer forum last week.

Miller Homes Ltd has been fined £200,000 for polluting a Huddersfield watercourse for more than 1km, after an investigation by the Environment Agency. The firm was previously fined £100,000 in 2016 for a similar offence in 2013 at the same site.