Labour MP Urges Block of Norfolk Broads Housing Plan

Labour MP Chris Hinchliff is urging the Office for Environmental Protection to block a new environmental delivery plan (EDP) that would permit the construction of 15,780 new homes in the Norfolk Broads. Under proposed planning reforms, developers would pay £2,675 per house, totaling £42 million, into a central nature restoration fund to obtain permission to build in protected habitats.

Hinchliff and other critics describe the scheme as a licence to kill nature, arguing that the plan ignores critical nutrient pollution and rolls back environmental laws. Hinchliff contends that a plan leaving most pollution unaddressed effectively locks in ecological degradation.

Natural England, the government nature adviser that created the plan, acknowledges the development will cause physical and biological damage. However, the agency maintains the fund will enable larger-scale conservation and sustainable development through river restoration and wetland creation. Government ministers defend the EDPs as a necessary measure to meet a target of 1.5 million new homes by the end of the parliament. The consultation for the Norfolk Broads plan ends on October 31.