UK government plans to scrap water pollution rules to allow more house building were blocked in the House of Lords last night, after Labour decided to vote against the amendment. Ministers argued that the change was needed to build 100,000 homes by the end of the decade, but lost the vote in the upper house by 203 votes to 156. It’s a disappointing result for large housebuilders, which have made a major lobbying effort in parliament over the last few years. Analysis of Tortoise’s Westminster Accounts, which tracks money moving through parliament, has revealed that major property developers have given at least £8.5 million to the Conservative party since the 2019 election. Brandon Lewis, the former minister for housing, has received £43,500 in donations from one developer, Countywide Developments, since 2019.
Since leaving his cabinet post under Liz Truss, Lewis has earned £23,000 for 37 hours work acting as adviser to the CEO and Board of Thakeham Homes. Last month he wrote an editorial in the Telegraph lambasting the so-called nutrient neutrality rules, which limit the amount of excess nitrates and phosphates that developers can release into waterways. Another of the recipients, Natalie Elphicke MP, has argued in the Commons that rules for housebuilders were “fundamentally flawed”. In the last year she has received two tickets to sporting events worth £1,200 from Barratt homes, a £2,500 donation from a construction company, and a dinner worth £264 from the Home Builders Federation. A month before the government decided to scrap the rules, the Home Builders Federation published a report entitled “Nutrient Neutrality: four years of government failure” which claims there is “no link between homebuilding and river pollution”.