Nutrient Neutrality: Brookbanks assists the HBF

Brookbanks have worked with the Home Builders Federation (HBF) to review the extent to which new home building contributes to nutrient pollution in England’s watercourses. The main contributor of phosphorus to watercourses comes from sewage discharged from wastewater treatment works directly into the watercourses.

Despite this, there is little pressure on the water authorities to clean up the sewage further. Instead, the onus has been placed onto the housebuilder to mitigate the impacts, typically at high costs to the developer with little benefit to the occupant, developer and even the watercourses, due to the minimal amount of nutrients discharged from these new sites.