The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has launched a new consultation on its proposals for the implementation of the Sustainable Drainage Provisions in the Flood and Water Management Act.

The consultation sets out the Government's proposals to implement the requirements for sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in new and redeveloped sites in England, which are provided for in the Flood and Water Management Act (2010). The Welsh Government will be consulting separately about implementation in Wales.

 

 

1. Impact Assessment;
2. Draft National Standards; and
3. Statutory Instruments including proposals for approval and adoption.

The draft Standards and statutory instruments provide much of the detail of how the SuDS process will work. 

 

The Act requires construction work with drainage implications to have its drainage systems for managing surface runoff (including rainwater,snow and other precipitation) approved before construction may begin. A SuDS Approving Body (SAB) will be established in unitary or county local authorities to approve and, where appropriate, adopt SuDS.

Defra is also proposing to develop collaborative guidance to support the National Standards for Sustainable Drainage are is inviting anyone who would like to contribute to the development of the guidance to submit expressions of interest to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by 20 January 2012.

Surface water flooding is a serious problem in the UK  - of the 55,000 properties damaged in the summer of 2007, two-thirds were flooded by surface runoff overloading drainage systems.

Although Government policy already encourages developers to build SuDS, it is estimated that as few as 40% of new developments and redevelopments are drained by SuDS of some sort; and uptake has been slow. The Government supports the recommendations made by the Pitt Review of the 2007 floods to improve the slow uptake of SuDS, including:

• Government should resolve the issue of which organisations are responsible for the ownership and maintenance of SuDS.
• The automatic right to connect surface runoff from new developments to the sewerage system should be removed.

The Government now wants to increase the use of SuDS in new developments and redevelopments wherever possible by establishing the National Standards.

Deadline for responses to the consultation is 13 March 2012.