Natural England's Nutrient Mitigation Scheme for developers

If you want to build new housing within the Tees catchment area, you may need to mitigate any nutrient pollution it will create in order to get planning permission. To do this, you can apply to buy credits that fund mitigation activities, such as creating a new woodland or wetland. This will balance out any nutrient pollution produced by your housing development.

This guidance explains how to buy credits from Natural England's nutrient mitigation scheme when it is launched on the 31 of March.

More catchment areas will be added to this scheme in the future. This guidance will be updated when catchments are added.

Who can apply

You can apply to buy nutrient mitigation credits from Natural England if you want to build any number of housing units, including if you want to build just one house. You can be:

• an individual
• a housing developer of any size
• a consultant working on behalf of an individual or a developer

You must be planning to build housing within the Tees catchment area.

When to apply

To purchase credits from Natural England's Nutrient Mitigation Scheme, you will need to complete an application form and submit it within a credit round.

This application form will be available to download when the GOV.UK page goes live on the 31st of March at 10:00 AM. The FAQS document on the Natural England website will be updated prior to 31st of March to include the relevant GOV.UK link for Natural England's Nutrient Mitigation Scheme.

Please note that submitting this form does not guarantee you will receive credits.

The first round of applications opens on the 31st of March at 10:00 AM. You must submit your application by 30 April 2023.
There will be further rounds of applications. Choose the round of funding that best fits your planning application timings. The next 3 rounds will be open from:

• 3 to 28 July 2023
• 2 to 27 October 2023
• 8 January to 2 February 2024