Crisis hits housebuilding in West Sussex over 'water neutrality' rules

Developers say the rules have effectively stopped any housebuilding in the county.

And a consortium of development companies say some are now facing financial hardship and are forecasting bankruptcy.

The consortium – known as Houses for Homes – says that Southern Water has a legal obligation to provide water, not developers or councils such as Horsham, Worthing or Chichester.

Spokesman Marcel Hoad said: “Natural England has effectively stopped any house building or any development within the most productive area of West Sussex.

"Maybe Southern Water might consider reducing their profits and investing in infrastructure and leak repair to ensure they can carry out their obligations.”

Water neutrality rules mean that the total demand for water for a new development should be the same as before the development took place.

Houses for Homes say that between 2017 and 2021, numerous meetings were held between Southern Water, The Environment Agency and Natural England to discuss the development of boreholes at Hardham Water Works and potential modification to the abstraction licence.

"It is our opinion that at those meetings, Natural England should have told Southern Water that any development at Hardham should not cause an increase in groundwater abstraction.

“If Southern Water refused this request, then Natural England should have immediately served them with a position notice, banning any development that would cause an increase in abstraction. Natural England failed in their duty by not doing so.”

They say they suggested to Southern Water in 2020 that they should prioritise the use of the River Rother to reduce groundwater abstraction and put their ideas to the company which, they maintained, would have seen a 90 per cent reduction in groundwater abstraction.

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They add: “It is our position that Southern Water and the water industry in general, have made up their minds that the only way forward is to tell customers to use up to 40 per cent less water and to use high energy schemes such as desalination and sewage works effluent recycling, to bridge the remaining shortfall.”

A Southern Water spokesperson said: “We plan 50 years in to the future to meet the water needs of our customers through our regular Water Resource Management Plans.

"The south east is officially designated a water stressed region where we have less drinking water per head than countries such as Morocco and humans must share precious fresh water with nature.

"We encourage developers to adopt good design for water efficient homes and water positive landscapes.

“We have not paid a dividend since 2017 and every penny of profit has been reinvested into our assets and improving our performance.”