Leading civil engineers, environmental scientists, water experts, water companies and architects have appealed to the House Lords to ensure the incoming housing law protects new and existing homes from flooding.
Contributing to the Housing and Planning Bill debate currently passing through the Lords, the coalition said that new development will place additional pressure on critical drainage and flood defence infrastructure.
The group includes the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Water UK.
Developers should be compelled to use SuDS on new developments – guidelines are “toothless”
The group wants the Lords to amend the Bill so that it restricts developers’ automatic right to directly connect new houses to existing drainage systems – many of which are already over-loaded – and compel them to integrate low-cost measures known as sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), which compensate for the additional flow that new developments create.
The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 legislated to this effect, but the law was never implemented. Instead, planning guidelines were produced to require SuDS, but the group say the measure has been toothless in promoting greater flood risk mitigation on new developments and has failed to promote the added benefits of sustainable drainage for water quality, biodiversity and amenity. The group says the amendment tabled by Baroness Parminter will be instrumental in mitigating flood risk.
Baroness Kate Parminter (Liberal Democrat), Baroness Barbara Young (Labour) and Lord John Krebs (cross-bench, Chair of the adaptation sub-committee of the Committee on Climate Change) tabled the amendment on sustainable drainage systems (Amendment 119A).
Former ICE President and flooding expert Professor David Balmforth said:
“Flooding is one of the major challenges facing society today, yet we continue to add to the problem by building new homes in a way that makes flooding more likely. This does not have to be the case as there is a proven and low cost solution using SuDs. The Pitt Review and the Committee on Climate Change view them as a force for good; so should the law. We urge the Lords to send the Commons a Bill that will help protect society from flooding.”
Dr Richard Benwell, Head of Government Affairs at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) described the bill as “a test case for whether the Government is serious about a joined up approach to flood defence and environmental protection. Wales, Scotland and especially Northern Ireland have already made progress on sustainable drainage, but England is lagging behind.”
Terry Fuller, Chief Executive of CIWEM added:
“It is absurd that in the current age we still allow developers to build homes and automatically connect to the sewer system without any consideration of the impact of doing so. This amendment would set us on the right path to encourage developers to consider flood risk from the outset”.
Waterbriefing is media partner with the Institution of Civil Engineers keynote Flooding and Water Management Conference 2016 taking place in London on Thursday 30th June. Click here for more information about the conference.
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