SUMMER 2025 DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 20
GPSJ
LOCAL AUTHORITY & COUNCIL
Back from the brink
Norfolk Rivers Consortium
neutralises nutrient neutrality
issue for local housebuilder.
While no-one wants pollution,
the reality of nutrient neutrality
is more divisive, for some the
di昀昀erence between life and death,
professionally speaking.
And so it was for regional
housebuilder Oak昀椀elds Homes
who were three weeks away from
breaking ground on their biggest
development to date when Natural
England more than doubled its list
of nutrient neutrality-a昀昀ected LPAs
(Local Planning Authorities).
More than three years later,
the development – Ten Oaks in
Hoveton, Norfolk, one of two
villages on the River Bure referred
to as the “Capital of the Broads”
– is over halfway complete and
being marketed by estate agents
as an eco-friendly cul-de-sac
collection of 23 bungalows
and 昀椀ve houses, priced from
£345,000.
Oak昀椀elds Homes director Jacob
Carver knows exactly who to
thank for redeeming his family’s
life savings - Rodger Harrison,
founder and managing director of
Norfolk Rivers Consortium, which
helps developers negotiate the
mine昀椀eld of nutrient neutrality.
Within months of
commissioning the consortium
to help them, Rodger and codirector Zak Simmonds had won
them planning permission, and a
month later, in November 2024,
work began on site. Ten Oaks is
now due to complete in January
(2026).
Jacob had spent months trying
to resolve the nutrient neutrality
issue himself, including enlisting
the help of a former nutrient
neutrality advisor to Norfolk
County Council whose report got
them past the 昀椀rst hurdle with the
county council … but no further.
While his scheme to gain
nutrient neutrality credits by
upgrading non-compliant
20
septic tanks for eight individual
properties throughout Norfolk
was acceptable in theory, the
Section 106 legalities proved the
stumbling block.
It was in this aspect that Norfolk
Rivers Consortium more than
proved their worth.
Jacob was referred to the
consortium by the nutrient
neutrality advisor although he
actually already knew Rodger as
he had already used his drainage
company, Harrison Civils, which
has 25+ years of expertise in the
sewage treatment sector, on a
couple of their projects.
“Rodger saw the crux of the
issue immediately. Norfolk had
an issue with the Section 106
unilateral undertakings with the
eight tank holders. The council
didn’t seem to have a very good
idea of what was required, and
they were very nervous to do
anything, and we were running out
of funds at the time.
“He de昀椀nitely did save our
business. I don’t know what we
would have done otherwise. We
hadn’t taken the issue of nutrient
neutrality too seriously to start
with, and then slowly in the weeks
and months following, the gravity
of the situation became clear.
“I started to 昀椀nd out how
advanced Rodger’s nutrient
neutrality mitigation scheme
was and that he had the credits
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL SUMMER 2025
available to help us. Obviously,
there was a lot of relief after
spending such a long time stuck
in limbo.”
Jacob added: “Rodger has a
very good business model going
forward and has charged his fees
at a fair market price. We were the
昀椀rst developer in the county to get
approval, and we will 100% be
using him again.”
Nutrient neutrality as a
planning policy in England gained
prominence in 2019 when
Natural England 昀椀rst advised
LPAs about the issue following
a 2018 European Court of
Justice ruling. This ruling, known
as the “Dutch Nitrogen Case”,
related to the impact of nutrient
pollution, speci昀椀cally nitrogen and
phosphates, on protected sites.
Norfolk Rivers Consortium
works alongside Natural England
and the Environment Agency
to reduce water contamination
in England’s rivers and achieve
nutrient neutrality in large parts of
the country.
Rodger Harrison said: “We
were delighted to provide Jacob
with technical mitigation reports
which work out and determine
the amounts of phosphate and
nitrogen which needed to be
o昀昀set. This amounted to eight
properties which had to have
their septic tanks upgraded to
new Graf UK eco-friendly sewage
treatment plants to compensate
for the new, mains drains
development they were building.
We carried out all of the surveying,
engineering and legal work on
behalf of Oak昀椀elds Homes.”
Jacob said: “I found the
whole of Rodger’s team very
professional, with special mention
to Zak [technical director] for
putting all the reports together
for the council. It is a sad state of
a昀昀airs that the planning system is
completely broken in this country.
More red tape and more taxes
are pushing the price of land up
at a time when the country needs
more houses to be built, and the
nutrient neutrality issue just feels
like another tax to us.”
Meanwhile, Oak昀椀elds Homes,
which has grown from a single
house project in 2010 to the 28
units at Ten Oaks, is con昀椀dent
enough in the support it gets from
the Norfolk Rivers Consortium
to embark on an even more
aggressive growth strategy, a far
cry from a year ago when the
family’s life savings were at risk.
And the same goes for the
Norfolk Rivers Consortium, whose
success in getting its business
model to be the 昀椀rst accepted
by an LPA has encouraged the
company to take it nationwide,
with the launch of the National
Rivers Consortium!
Winners all round!
