Government publishes tools and resources for calculating nutrient budgets in nutrient neutrality catchments

Article summary

Natural England and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) have released a collection of tools and resources to calculate nutrient budgets in nutrient neutrality catchments. Developers are now mandated to use nutrient budget calculations to ensure that new residential development in the 27 nutrient neutrality habitats sites does not bring about a net increase in nutrient pollution. In order to fulfil these requirements, nutrient neutrality calculators have been created for proposed developments in each of the different catchment areas. Aside from developers, the nutrient neutrality calculators can also be used by local planning authorities who need to understand the mitigation requirements for future developments or to assess planning applications, as well as environmental groups who want to understand the impacts of a local development on a habitat site affected by nutrient neutrality.