About the strategy
As the Local Planning Authority, there is no statutory requirement for Somerset Council to intervene to deliver phosphate neutral development. Despite this, Somerset Council has worked to find solutions for development to proceed within the affected river catchment areas. To support this work, Somerset Council has been awarded £9.6 million of the Nutrient Mitigation Fund by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
You can read details of this in the delivery document, which was presented to the Strategic Planning Committee in March 2025: Nutrient Mitigation Fund: Delivery Strategy, presented to the Strategic Planning Committee in March 2025.
A previous version of this strategy – known as the Somerset West and Taunton District Council Interim Strategy – can be found below.
Three projects were identified within the Delivery Strategy and are listed below. You can find further information in the report.
- Project One:
- Salinity Solutions (Temporary/Bridging Credit Solution) – this project is no longer being progressed as it was not found to be cost effective.
- Miscanthus Grass (Temporary/Bridging Credit Solution).
- New Technical Innovations.
- Project Two: call for sites for land-based phosphate mitigation measures – (In Perpetuity Mitigation Solutions).
- Project Three: working with Registered Social Housing Providers and our Council Housing and Property Stock to release P-credits to support the delivery of affordable housing (In Perpetuity Mitigation Solutions).
Prior to the current Delivery Strategy, the former Somerset West and Taunton council had committed £2 million to forward-fund the delivery of an interim strategy of measures. The purpose of these measures is to generate phosphate credits (known as Somerset West and Taunton P-credits) that can be used to unlock some of the planning applications that are awaiting a decision.
Somerset West and Taunton District Council Interim Strategies