Water credits scheme to unlock more housing in Greater Cambridge ‘doomed to fail due to a lack of plumbers’
A water credits scheme that was designed to offset huge housing development plans for Cambridge is doomed to fail because there are “not enough plumbers in the region” to do the work needed.
The government-devised system allows developers to offset their development through the purchase and sale of water credits to ensure they have a neutral impact on water scarcity within Cambridge.
However, Cambridge Past, Present and Future, the city’s largest civic society, says it has “no confidence that a water credit system will solve Greater Cambridge’s water scarcity and planning problem”.
After doing the maths, the charity reckons the number of homes that would need to be retrofitted with water-saving devices to make the credit system viable could not be achieved in the timescales required.
And it warns that Cambridge faces a stark choice of “no growth or unsustainable growth” until 2032 when there will be a pipeline transferring water from Grafham and then in 2036 when a new Fens reservoir is projected to be completed.
In a letter to councillors, Sarah Nicholas, Cambridge PPF’s principal planning officer, said: “This means that greater Cambridge faces two unpalatable decisions, either restrict growth until 2032 or allow growth knowing that it is harming our environment and chalk streams and is therefore not sustainable development.”
The former Conservative government published its ‘Addressing water scarcity in Greater Cambridge’ report in March this year, alongside its ‘Case for Cambridge’ which outlined plans to build an extra 150,000 homes in the Greater Cambridge region.
The report unveiled plans to test a new water trading market in the area, which would enable developers to offset their water usage through the purchase and sale of water credits to ensure they did not affect water resources negatively.
The £9million scheme would require the establishment of a new market framework and operator, which would match buyers and sellers of water credits.
The Environment Agency has already blocked the construction of more than thousands of homes and significant lab space due to water issues, including schemes at Bourn Airfield and Darwin Green.
It has advised that some water bodies in the Cambridge area are at risk of deterioration, and that any new development that takes place must not increase.
Now Cambridge PPF claims that this credit system will not work and that development should not be approved on this basis. It estimates that to clear the current backlog of houses stuck in the planning process would require between 36,000 to 72,000 homes to be retrofitted in less than eight years.
The water credits scheme states that retrofitting “water efficient devices” to existing homes saves on average 32.5 litres per household per day. Cambridge PPF calculates that at an average occupancy rate of 2.3 people per household in Cambridge, that equates to 14 litres per person per day.
If all new homes achieve the government water consumption target of 110 litres per person per day, each one will need to be offset by about eight retrofits to be water neutral. Other organisations have proposed four retrofits to offset one new home.
According to the government update there are “over 9,000 homes and 300,000 square metres of commercial space unable to proceed through the planning system” due to the Environment Agency’s objections.
Ms Nicholas says: “We therefore estimate that to clear this backlog of houses stuck in planning would require between 36,000 and 72,000 homes to be retrofitted in less than eight years. This is 4,500 to 9,000 per year or 17 to 34 per working day.
“There are not enough plumbers in the Greater Cambridge area to meet current needs, let alone this massive amount of additional work.
“There is scope to look at water savings from large institutional and commercial users such as the university, hospitals and some large employers but they don’t yet have water meters, so they would first need to be metered to understand how much water they are using and then an assessment made of how much they could save in order to calculate the credits.
“To achieve the water savings would still require significant work and so the same labour force capacity issues would apply.”
The Federation of Cambridge Residents’ Associations has launched a petition – which has passed 1,000 signatures – asking the Environment Agency to continue opposing major development in Cambridge due to water scarcity. It says: “The Environment Agency has objected to developments such as Bourn and Darwin Green on the grounds that they are not sustainable because there is not enough water.
“We support these objections and ask that you continue to protect the environment by opposing major developments in this region until there is clear evidence that there is enough water to support them.”
In May, The Chesterton Partnership, comprising Brookgate, Network Rail and DB Cargo, won permission from the Planning Inspectorate for five commercial buildings and 425 homes to the north of Cambridge North station, after South Cambridgeshire District Council failed to reach a decision on it in time.
The inspector noted concerns about water supply, but referred to government proposals to develop a water credits market to “supplement and potentially accelerate delivery of water management measures”.
However, Cambridge PPF has pointed out that the conditions accompanying the grant of planning permission made no reference to the water credit scheme.
When the charity challenged the government on the issue, it said any called-in applications would be “assessed and determined on their own merits”, which the charity argued means the appeal decision did not set a precedent.
Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council held a private briefing from planning officers for all councillors about water scarcity and planning last Tuesday.
A council spokesperson said members were given “the latest knowledge we have regarding subjects including water company plans, the work of the Cambridge Water Scarcity Group, recent appeals and planning decisions”.
“At the present time, this decision has weight when considering planning applications. This is because it provides an up-to-date assessment of how to approach the issues of water capacity and quality – and it is also a decision which refers to government ministerial statements.
“These statements consider the issue of water scarcity in Greater Cambridge, and set out plans for a water credits system and other measures to meet the area’s water needs, aimed at delivering water savings and addressing concerns around sustainable water supply for allocated sites in adopted Local Plans.
“Continued work will now need to take place with the new government and other partners to develop a water credit scheme, which we believe could play a very important part in safeguarding and enhancing the water supply in Greater Cambridge – while enabling the development of vital infrastructure to secure the area’s economy and providing much-needed new homes for people while protecting the environment.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government was asked whether it still stood by the water credits plan now that Labour had come to power.
A spokesperson said: “We are aware water scarcity issues have been a barrier to development in Cambridge.
“We intend to look across the board at how we deliver our objective to build 1.5 million homes over this Parliament, and will set out further details, including in relation to plans for Cambridge, in due course.”
Visit change.org/p/save-our-chalk-streams-petition-to-the-environment-agency to sign FeCRA’s petition.
