Water neutrality

Developers, property owners, landowners, or companies may be considering options to provide strategic water offsetting solutions to help address water neutrality requirements in the Sussex North area or may have been approached by companies offering these solutions. Strategic schemes are intended to support several different applications, potentially across multiple planning authority areas. We are aware of several such schemes at varying stages of development, though the Sussex North authorities (Chichester DC, Crawley BC, Horsham DC, Mid Sussex DC, South Downs NPA and West Sussex CC) do not yet formally recognise any of these schemes.

Proposers should be aware that there are potentially significant, if not prohibitive, legal issues associated with strategic offsetting schemes for water supply, particularly those schemes seeking to operate across several authority areas. Much of this is due to the stringent requirements of the Habitats Regulations. Sussex North is the only area in the country responding to a water neutrality Habitats Regulations issue, so there is currently very limited guidance and examples of existing schemes. Proposers will need to obtain their own legal advice about these issues and the functioning of any proposed scheme.

We would, however, welcome the addition of private strategic offsetting solutions in Sussex North, which could support planned development in the area. Any solutions that are proposed must meet the strict requirements of the Habitats Regulations when applications are submitted for planning permission. This will include demonstrating with certainty that the development will not have an adverse effect on the designated Arun Valley sites that water neutrality requirements are in place to protect. Further details on these requirements are set out below.

In addition, we would expect the operators or owners of such strategic offsetting schemes to:

• Have systems and monitoring in place to ensure that water savings generated are only being used to support an appropriate level of development (i.e. to demonstrate that there is no double-counting of water savings benefits).
• Record details of the specific applications and/or properties that any offsetting is linked to and to make this information available to local planning authorities and the Sussex North Offsetting Water Scheme (SNOWS) team upon request.
• Record the actual water savings that are being generated by the offsetting solution and demonstrate that these savings are sufficient to always meet the water demands from properties being offset. This may first require monitoring and reporting of pilot schemes on a trial basis.
• Have contingency measures in place should additional offsetting capacity be required to meet actual demands.

For any strategic offsetting proposals, before commencing operation of any scheme, we would strongly recommend that you seek the formal, pre-application views of Natural England (NE) and the Environment Agency (EA) where applicable and obtain any data relevant to your proposal from NE, EA, and Southern Water. This step is essential if your solution is novel, untested, or is likely to require other permits or licences from the relevant agencies. Further details on when to consult NE, SW and the EA are shown below.

Planning Requirements

Any planning application submitted that intends to use a private strategic offsetting solution will need to provide exactly the same information as any other application affected by water neutrality requirements, namely:

• A Water Neutrality Statement setting out existing and proposed water usage within the site and any mitigation measures, whether on or off site, required to make the development water neutral.
• Where an alternative water supply is to be provided, the Water Neutrality Statement will need to demonstrate that no water is utilised from sources that supply the Sussex North WRZ. This will require evidence that sufficient water supply is available to meet demand arising from the proposed development, demonstrating with certainty that the alternative supply source does not impact upon the Arun Valley sites. The wider acceptability of and certainty of delivery for alternative water supplies will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• The applicant will also need to provide confirmation of how any offsetting will be secured, in perpetuity, and delivered. This may require a S106 agreement and other legal agreements. The developer, offset provider and any affected landowners are likely to need to be party to any agreements.

Sussex North pre-planning advice

If your proposed offsetting solution has no objections from NE, SW and/or the EA, you may wish to enter into pre-application discussions with the relevant local planning authority (LPA). If your proposal only seeks to provide offsetting in one LPA area, you can contact the relevant planning team directly, using the contact details below. If your proposal will provide offsetting across several LPA areas, please contact the Sussex North Offsetting Water Scheme (SNOWS) team via SNOWS@horsham.gov.uk, where any cross-authority advice can be arranged.

• Chichester DC: dcplanning@chichester.gov.uk
• Crawley BC: Development.Control@crawley.gov.uk
• Horsham DC: planning@horsham.gov.uk
• Mid Sussex DC: planninginfo@midsussex.gov.uk