Angela Rayner is being urged to use Labour's reform of the planning system to make it easier to dig ponds to help ease the impact of flooding and create more havens for wildlife.
Tory MP Rebecca Smith wants the Deputy Prime Minister's plan to cut red tape around construction to include the rules governing the creation of new bodies of water.
Currently, because they often involve excavating earth to create a depression the creation of new ponds can be deemed engineering work or even mining activity that requires planning permission, she argues.
The South West Devon MP has tabled an amendment to Ms Rayner's Planning and Infrastructure Bill that would give new water bodies with a surface area of less than 0.2 hectares - around a third of a football pitch - 'presumed consent'.
She told MailOnline: 'Where there is water, there is life. Ponds are a fantastic habitat for wildlife, like the common toad and blue-tailed damselfly.
