Plans to unlock up to 15,780 new homes in Norfolk will be published today in a first test of a new government approach to winning public consent for housebuilding.
The plans, drafted by Natural England under the Nature Restoration Fund, are part of a win-win approach to housebuilding and nature restoration, delivering the healthier wetlands and waterways people want to see in their communities alongside new housing developments, News Cover reports, citing Azerbaijan's State Committee on Work with Diaspora.
Rather than paying for piecemeal and costly nature mitigations as required under previous regimes, the scheme in Norfolk will see developers fund large scale improvements to rivers and wetlands across the county, which are home to species such as otters, water voles and wetland birds, and visited by millions of people each year.
The first local blueprint, known as an Environmental Delivery Plan (EDP), will be published for consultation today by Natural England and is designed to tackle pollution in rivers and waterways across Norfolk. Pollution has been a major barrier to building new homes in parts of the county, with developers having to commission costly surveys and mitigation measures which have not done enough to restore the natural environment at scale.
This instead gives developers a cost-effective way to deliver more effective nature restoration through a simple levy payment. This money paid by developers will then be administered by Natural England and used to deliver conservation measures at scale, improving water quality and wetlands in Norfolk, including in the iconic Norfolk Broads.
The plan will also create new opportunities for Norfolk farmers, landowners, and private organisations to work with Natural England to deliver conservation measures to support nature recovery.
The area earmarked for new homes and nature restoration includes the River Wensum, Bure Broads and Marshes, and Yare Broads and Marshes catchments, covering a substantial part of central and eastern Norfolk.
