Rivers: Environment Protection
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to address (a) over-abstraction, (b) phosphorus loading, and (c) urban development pressures on chalk streams.
Answered by Emma Hardy
Restoring our chalk streams to better ecological health is a core ambition of our overall programme of work to clean up rivers, lakes and seas for good.
We are tackling one of the biggest threats to chalk streams by reducing harmful abstraction by an estimated 126 million litres daily by 2030, protecting vital water flows to these fragile ecosystems. In June 2025, the Environment Agency (EA) updated its National Framework for Water Resources, which sets out the importance of chalk streams and how we will include their needs in all water resources planning and decision making.
The government recognises that nutrient pollution is a key pressure affecting chalk streams. Under the Environment Act 2021, we have a legally binding target to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment from agriculture entering the water environment by 40% by 2038.
With regard to impacts from urban development, the EA is a statutory consultee for planning applications and advise on the potential environmental impacts of a development, including matters relating to water.
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