Developers could soon be given the green light to press ahead with new housing schemes across east Kent following government proposals that some fear will “rip up” safeguards protecting wetlands and rivers.

The move to ditch “disproportionate” EU regulations in a bid to speed up housebuilding, included in the Levelling Up Bill, has been branded a “disgrace” by local nature campaigners who say economic growth is being favoured over protecting the environment.

In east Kent, the building of thousands of new homes has been held up because Natural England imposed blanket opposition on developments due to the pollution of the Stodmarsh Nature Reserve, near Canterbury.

Harmful nitrate and phosphate nutrients caused by wastewater and slurry run-off from farmland have been getting into the ecosystem.

Canterbury, Folkestone and Hythe, Thanet and Ashford councils are among dozens of local authorities nationwide facing a stall in housebuilding due to similar water pollution issues, despite being set targets by the government to facilitate new homes.

The current EU rules, being enforced by Natural England, say any new developments must be “nutrient neutral” and not add to the pollution.

Now, the new bill currently going through parliament would ditch the regulations – with central government preparing to pump extra money into the protection of rivers and waterways, effectively removing the responsibility from developers.

It could mean an estimated 8,000 planned new homes across the Canterbury district could soon be freed of the Natural England blanket objection, downgrading the organisation’s observations to guidance, with decision-making powers on the issue reverting to council planners.

But the proposals have angered environmental groups, including Kent Wildlife Trust, whose head of nature-based solutions, Daniel Wynn, branded the pollution of Stodmarsh “a disgrace”.

“In Kent, the Stour catchment is quite literally flooded with nitrates and phosphates from various sources, housebuilding being just one of them,” he said.

“Other sources include the agricultural sector and the poorly-maintained wastewater treatment works run by the water companies.

“Legal policies are in place to ensure that water companies upgrade them – but now, who can trust the government to see this through?

“Time and again economic growth has been favoured over environmental protection.

“Our rivers need protection and it is disgraceful that a nationally protected site like Stodmarsh has been allowed to creep into poor condition because of the rubbish, pollution and sewerage that is allowed to freely flow into the river which is a life support for our landscape but being poisoned.

“The public has a right to be angry about this, and we stand with them. Nature recovery is fundamental to the health and wellbeing of our society, and we are allowing it to be polluted and ignored.

“If housebuilders and developers get off the hook, then who else will get a free pass to pollute without consequence?”

Maidstone Borough Council Green Party member Stephen Thompson says it’s “outrageous” that the taxpayer would have to pick up the bill for cleaning up waterways while water companies and housing developers were making huge profits.

“This is not a joined-up plan – it just picks up easy wins for the government in getting rid of EU regulation and giving a big cheer to developers,” he said.

“It will do nothing for the parlous state of our rivers.”

The government had previously announced developers could offset the damage caused by harmful substances seeping into the county’s rivers and lakes by buying “nutrient credits” to fund mitigation measures. These include new wetlands or woodland and building water treatment facilities within new developments.

But now it says it will double investment in its nutrient mitigation scheme, being run by Natural England, to £280 million.

A further £166 million will be allocated for slurry infrastructure grants to reduce run-off from fields into rivers.

Bosses at Canterbury City Council say there will not be an overnight lifting of the current block on new housing, because much of the detail of how the new measures will work are yet to be revealed.

Council leader Alan Baldock (Lab) recently visited 10 Downing Street to call on government departments across Whitehall to come together and take ownership of the complex and multi-faceted issue that stifles the council’s ability to deliver new homes, especially those that are affordable.

“We are pleased the nutrient neutrality challenge is now at the forefront of ministers’ minds and they recognise there is far more to addressing this problem than not building houses,” he said.

“As always, the devil will be in the detail of the proposed legislation as it tries to balance the need for much-needed homes to be built while protecting the invaluable wildlife in the internationally-acclaimed Stodmarsh nature reserve.”

Cllr Baldock was accompanied at Downing Street by the leader of Ashford Borough Council, Cllr Noel Ovenden, who welcomed the government announcement.

The Ashford Independent said: “With desperately needed affordable, shared ownership and social homes held up by the moratorium on building in the Stour Valley due to the ongoing deterioration of the lakes at the Stodmarsh nature reserve, it is pleasing that the government has reacted quickly to help us get our Local Plan back on track to deliver much needed homes in the right places.

“On the face of it this is really good news but we need to understand the detail of the government’s proposal.”

Speaking this week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said dropping the EU regulations would provide an £18 billion boost to the economy and support tens of thousands of new jobs.

He said: “We're able to do this because previously it was a disproportionate and poorly targeted old EU ruling that blocked these homes.

“Thankfully, we can now reverse that, and alongside that we are investing hundreds of millions of pounds to continue protecting and enhancing our precious natural environment.”

Environment secretary Therese Coffey claims the government is going to tackle the key causes of nutrients at source with more than £200 million of funding to reduce run-off from agriculture, plus plans to upgrade wastewater treatment works.

It also intends to work with the housebuilding industry to ensure larger developers make what it describes as an “appropriate and fair” contribution to the scheme over the coming years.

No detail on that has been announced, but the government said it is discussing how to do so with the Home Builders Federation.

It is not yet clear how the relaxation of the rules will affect current proposed developments in Canterbury and Ashford. Some developers previously agreed with authorities to install costly on-site sewage treatment works to get around the previous restrictions or others who are expecting to pay “nutrient credits”.

Such systems have been proposed for both the 4,000 home Mountfield Park site, south of Canterbury, and the former Nasons department store redevelopment in the city centre.

Manuel Alsoni of the Setha Group, which owns the High Street site, would only say that the company was now working towards finding a different and cheaper solution.