The Stodmarsh scheme is being delivered by Dace Environmental in partnership with Greenshank Environmental. In its first stage, the scheme aims to deliver enough credits to allow the development of 3,000 to 5,000 homes around Ashford, Canterbury and the wider Stour catchment. A second pahse will bring capacity up to 8,000 homes.
Credits are now available through Greenshank Environmental鈥檚 online platform,聽enabling developers to identify and secure units more efficiently as they bring forward applications.
Nutrient neutrality requirements, introduced in 2019, have, Greenshank explains, become one of the most significant constraints on housing delivery across England. More than 160,000 homes have been delayed as a result, with 74 local authority areas affected by restrictions linked to water quality in protected habitats, and housebuilders and developers consistently citing environmental constraints as a factor in stalled sites.
The Stour catchment in Kent, which feeds into the internationally protected Stodmarsh wetlands, is one of the most affected areas in the country, with limited mitigation options available to developers until now.
The approval of the Stodmarsh Stream Enhancement Scheme provides a large-scale, deliverable source of nutrient mitigation that enables development to move forward. The work is secured for more than 80 years to ensure long-term environmental benefit and certainty for local planning authorities and developers.
Kim Connor-Streich, chief commercial officer at Greenshank Environmental, said: 鈥淒evelopers across the Stour catchment have spent years unable to bring forward sites because of the nutrient issue. This scheme finally provides a clear and reliable route to compliance, backed by long-term security and real ecological improvement.
鈥淲e鈥檙e applying natural processes at a scale we haven鈥檛 delivered before, and being first into the market with a solution of this size gives developers the certainty they鈥檝e been waiting for. The credits generated here will help unlock thousands of homes and provide a practical blueprint for how nutrient mitigation can be delivered in other constrained catchments.
鈥淪todmarsh shows what鈥檚 possible when landowners, local authorities and technical specialists work together. It gives the development sector confidence in both the mechanism and the outcomes, and demonstrates how environmental delivery and housing growth can move forward together.鈥�