Greater Cambridge is ‘stuffed’ over water supply, argues councillor, after government approves 1,000 new homes

The Greater Cambridge region is “stuffed” when it comes to solving its water resource issues, a councillor has warned, after the government gave the green light on 1,000 new homes based on hopes of a future solution.

City councillor Martin Smart suggested these hopes were flimsy, arguing a proposed water credits system would achieve “nothing” and the working group set up on the issue would be little more than a “talking shop”.

Cllr Smart (Lab, King’s Hedges) launched his broadside after Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council lost the fight to delay 1,000 new homes for the Darwin Green development on the edge of Cambridge.

The authorities ruled the outline application should be refused due to the Environment Agency’s concerns about water supply.

But developer Barratt David Wilson Homes and The North West Cambridge Consortium of Landowners argued that by the time the new homes were to be built in a few years the issue would be resolved.

An appeal was lodged to the Planning Inspectorate, which held an inquiry to consider the application.

Last month, Rushanara Ali MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Building Safety and Homelessness, agreed - on behalf of the housing secretary Angela Rayner - with the inspector that it could proceed, against the backdrop of the new Labour government’s pledge to unblock new housing.

The argument for Darwin Green is that a new water resources management plan agreed by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is likely to be in place prior to development to address the water supply concerns.

At a joint development control committee meeting on Wednesday (16 October), councillors shared fears about what this decision meant for them trying to manage the impact of development on the water scarcity problem.

Cllr Smart said: “We have a limited resource and it is running out, so it seems to me ultimately we are stuffed. It is going to run out, because I can’t see any other result from this.

“It seems to me that what will happen is whoever rocks up first gets the water, then it runs out.

“I heard on TV last night about some authority that was saying to their industry that they could not use any more water, so if you have already got it, then you can carry on using it, or sell your site and someone else can use it.

“Defra and the water credits market: what’s that going to do? Nothing. The working group: what’s that going to do? It is going to be a talking shop.

“All these things and reassurances - we all know that it is just not going to get us anywhere.

“We are using more water. There is only so much water. We have climate change. It is going to run out and that’s the end of it really, until government or somebody makes a decision to make a different sort of approach to this situation.”

Cllr Dr Martin Cahn (LIb Dem, Histon and Impington) asked council officers how the appeal impacted decisions on future planning applications.

He said: “Will we now never be able to take water supply considerations into account?”

Officers said all future planning applications will be considered “on their own merits”, adding that water supply is a material planning consideration.

They added that the Darwin Green appeal was considered a “material consideration”, which they said has “significant weight at the present time”.

The next milestone to review this position will be the publication of the Defra-approved water resources management plan.

Officers noted that a lot of work was going on and that there was “renewed enthusiasm from this government” to address water scarcity issues in the area.

Cllr Katie Porrer (Lib Dem, Market) “took comfort” that the inspector did not make the council or the Environment Agency pay the developer’s appeal costs, but feared the appeal decision “ties councillors’ hands”.

She asked what would happen if the water resources management plan did not deliver the water supply it needed to, noting previous plans had not been met.

Officers said the plan will need to be approved by Defra and said they are expecting it to come forward as a “robust document that considers the supply and demand issues”.

Cllr Simon Smith (Lab, Castle) suggested it would be “very brave” of Defra to approve a plan unconditionally “in light of prior performance”.

He expected performance monitoring and that it would be kept under review.

Cllr Smith added that the water supply issue was a wider problem than just in Cambridge.

He said it “started with privatisation of water companies” and that the problem was “compounded by poor regulation”.

He pointed out that they were in the hands of other agencies to address the problem, but said the councils still had a voice in the matter.

Cllr Anna Bradnam (Lib Dem, Milton and Waterbeach) said Greater Cambridge is “just one link in the water cycle”, but highlighted the importance of the area due to its chalk streams.

She said if they do not protect those very rare habitats, they could be “lost completely”.