The House of Lords last night succeeded in making an amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill onSustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) following its rejection in the House of Commons on Tuesday 3rd May.

The Government had rejected the amendment put forward by Baroness Parminter during Report Stage in the Lords on Monday 25 April aimed at ensuring essential flood prevention measures are put in place at new housing developments.

The Lords insisted that their Amendment 110 to the Bill should be retained for the following reason – “because drainage systems for surface water should be sustainable.”

Speaking in Tuesday’s House of Commons debate on the Bill, Brandon Lewis, Minister of State for Housing and Planning at the Department for Communities and Local Government, told MPs that the proposed new clause, as currently drafted, was “unnecessary and unworkable.” He explained:

“First, it makes the right to connect conditional on complying with the terms of a planning permission that may not actually provide for such a drainage system. That might be because it is not viable or because there are on-site constraints.”

“Secondly, the new clause presumes that a process exists that determines whether or not a development is permitted to connect to the public sewer, where there is none. Thirdly, making the right to connect conditional on planning permission leaves open a number of issues, including what happens when connections are needed and where there is currently no requirement for planning permission to be obtained at all. That might include situations where water sewerage companies are exercising their statutory obligations to drain an area effectively.”

“Finally, the new clause, which would increase red tape and barriers to development, has no transitional arrangements and industry, especially smaller house ​builders, will struggle to respond without time to prepare, leading to delays in house building.”

The Minister went on to say:

“The Government are committed to ensuring that development is safe from flooding, and the delivery of sustainable drainage systems is part of our planning policy, which was strengthened just over one year ago.”

Speaking in last night’s House of Lords debate for the Government, Viscount Younger of Leckie told the peers that the House of Commons had insisted that the amendment be rejected with a strong majority, commenting:

“ It is unworkable and would lead to uncertainty and delay in delivering our manifesto commitment to build more homes.”

Baroness Parminter responded:

“At Report, the Government’s response was that we should wait to see how the presumption in planning works, given that it has been in place for only a year, but the evidence that we had in Committee, at Report and since is that it is not working. Since Report, Hampshire County Council, Essex County Council and South Tyneside Council have joined every water company and the National Flood Forum, which has links with local councils all around the country, to say that the problem needs sorting, and sorting now.”

Lord Krebs, who is also chairman of the adaptation sub-committee of the Committee on Climate Change, said that flash surface-water flooding is already a major problem and one of the major sources of flooding in this country which is going to get worse, commenting:

“Why on earth would we want to build new developments now that are going to present the residents of those developments with problems with flash flooding in future, when we know that there are straightforward solutions? There is the solution of sustainable urban drainage, not removing the right to connect to the drains altogether, but making a presumption—because that right is not automatic—that developers will use sustainable urban drainage where possible.”

Lord Kennedy of Southwark said the issue had been discussed both in Committee and on Report, and it was disappointing that the Government were again rejecting the amendment.