The House of Lords has blocked the government’s attempts to relax rules around the pollution of waterways. In a fiery debate on the proposed amendment to the Energy Bill, former Climate Change Committee chair Lord Deben labelled the move as “entirely unconservative” and added that it was “one of the worst pieces of legislation” he has ever seen. The proposed amendment on scrapping nutrient neutrality measures was introduced by Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove last month. He claimed it would free up developers to build thousands of homes.