Hundreds of new homes will soon be able to be built across Somerset following the introduction of a new 'phosphates credits' system.

The construction of around 18,000 new homes have been held up across Somerset following the Dutch N court ruling, which prohibited any net increase of phosphates on the Somerset Levels and Moors.

Somerset's four district councils have been working with Defra and Natural England to find a solution to this problem, using financial contributions from developers and investment in new wetlands to offset the impact of new homes.

Somerset West and Taunton Council has now announced a new system where developers can purchase 'phosphate credits' to pay for this mitigation, allowing more than 700 new homes in the River Tone catchment area to come forward.

Details of the new scheme were announced at a meeting of the council's phosphates planning sub-committee in Taunton on Thursday morning (July 21).

Phosphate credits are created by measures taken by the council to offset the impact of existing housing – whether by retrofitting its council houses to reduce waste water, creating new wetlands, or asking developers to set aside 'fallow land' near new housing (as was recently proposed, but ultimately rejected, at a planned development of 80 homes in Cotford St. Luke).

Each credit equates to one kilogram of phosphates being removed in a year – with the council's current efforts having generated just over 65 credits at a cost of £3.54M.

To unlock some of the new homes being held up, developers will purchase these credits from the council, at a rough cost of £54,222 per credit, secured through a legal agreement once planning permission is formally issued.

Paul Browning, the council's principal planning officer, said in his written report: "As a rough guide, we would expect to be able to release somewhere in the region of between 150 and 780 homes within the River Tone sub-catchment.

"Based on the known phosphate requirements of planning applications currently held in abeyance, the typical cost per home is likely to be in the region of at least £5,500."

Mr Browning added that these "nature-based solutions" would only go so far to easing the backlog, and that the council would continue to lobby both Defra and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to implement long-term solutions for Somerset and other affected parts of the UK.

The council has indicated that priority would "quite often" be given to smaller developments, where affordable housing is not legally required, in order to avoid viability assessments.

In addition to accepting the new system, the committee also voted to create a new policy that package treatment plants (PTPs – also known as septic tanks) should only be permitted within any new development as a last resort.