Crawley Borough Council is delighted with the decision to withdraw water neutrality restrictions that were first introduced in September 2021. These restrictions prevent any development that increases the overall use of water in Crawley and other areas impacted. This has significantly impacted on development in the town, notably housing.

Crawley Borough Council has been at the forefront of work (alongside other council areas affected) to find ways that allowed developments to come forward, including being the first ever authority to have a local plan approved under water neutrality restrictions and the first local authority to develop water credits through retrofitting council housing stock – something that also reduced bills for tenants. Read our ‘Working in partnership to improve water efficiency for council housing stock’ news story to find out more.

The council also lobbied government strongly, most notably when announcing a housing emergency in February 2024. With the letter to ministers, Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Crawley Borough Council, and Councillor Ian Irvine, Cabinet member for Housing, made the following request: “DEFRA and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (now Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government) recognises that the imposition of water neutrality is a failure of long-term national and regional infrastructure planning, and that the sanctions applied through the local planning system penalise local communities, putting at risk future housing and growth. As such, both departments must be more proactive in resolving an issue that we are currently being told may not be resolved until 2040.”

This was followed by further lobbying jointly with Horsham, Chichester and Mid Sussex District councils, with support from West Sussex councils, to this same end, including meetings with ministers. This resulted in the issue being considered by the cross-departmental task force looking at water issues which brought together the key players needed to resolve the issue and, following significant efforts by all parties, has resulted in today’s announcement.

The lifting of water neutrality restrictions is a major success and step forward for the town. It does not resolve the town’s housing emergency, but it means we can once again get housing development moving for the residents of this town. This is real progress and comes after years of hard work to make sure this issue got the attention it deserves by government. I’m thankful to both Ministers Hardy and Pennycook who have provided the leadership needed to resolve this – not by 2040, but by 2025.

Councillor Michael Jones

Leader

Crawley Borough Council

Whilst the announcement has been made today, restrictions will not in fact be removed until the end of the month.

After years of delay to planning applications, the council understands that many applicants will be keen to now progress these as soon as possible. This will take a short while to work through and we thank applicants for their patience as the council processes what will be a significant amount of work for our planners. The council hopes that any frustration at delay will be more than compensated for by the fact that applications will now be easier to manage without the need to account for water neutrality restrictions and the associated costs moving forward.

Spokesperson

Crawley Borough Council