Labour MP Chris Hinchliff has asked the Office for Environmental Protection to intervene in a proposed plan intended to enable 15,780 new homes around the Norfolk Broads.
Under the draft environmental delivery plan, developers would pay £2,675 for each home into a nature-restoration fund, raising an estimated £42 million for measures including wetland and river restoration.
Hinchliff says Natural England's own figures indicate that the proposed measures would leave about 83% of additional nitrogen and up to 61% of additional phosphorus entering protected waters.
In a letter to the watchdog, he argued that the proposal does not meet statutory requirements to address environmental harm and could become a defective model for future plans elsewhere in England.
Natural England says the plan is designed to secure better outcomes for the Broads while enabling sustainable development, and the government says it has been scrutinised by a scientific panel including independent experts.
The proposal remains under consultation until 27 October. Hinchliff's intervention is a request for regulatory action, not a decision by the watchdog or the government to halt development.
