Sustainable Drainage Systems

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of progress by local planning authorities in implementing the National Planning Policy Framework changes regarding the mandatory use of sustainable drainage systems in new developments.

My Lords, the National Planning Policy Framework requires all new development that could affect drainage to incorporate sustainable drainage systems. We recently consulted on changes to the NPPF, including on sustainable drainage systems, and we will respond in due course. We had more than 20,000 responses, so we are still analysing them. By law, planning applications are determined in accordance with a development plan, with each application judged on its own merit. Any weight given to individual considerations is a matter for the local authority. I am pleased to tell the noble Baroness that in 2024-25, 96% of planning applications and 99% of new homes proposed in planning applications complied with Environment Agency advice on flood risk.

I thank the Minister for her reply. Does she agree that flooding continues to blight thousands of families and businesses and that the threat is growing? Can she explain why the standards on drainage set out in my Question are still not mandatory for every new development? Only this month, experts in water management have warned that without this legal duty, communities are left exposed to avoidable flood risk. Surely acting now is the thing to do, rather than placing our trust in voluntary compliance by the developers.

We are proposing a requirement that SUDS are designed in accordance with new national standards, as well as a new policy to discourage the creation of new river culverts and to encourage the removal of existing ones to help drive river renaturalisation and improve water management. The National Planning Policy Framework is clear:

“Inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas at highest risk (whether existing or future). Where development is necessary in such areas, the development should be made safe for its lifetime without increasing flood risk elsewhere”.

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that a recent court case set aside these informal and non-mandatory provisions. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs wants to implement the statutory basis of the 2010 Act to make these mandatory. Will she please agree to do so at the earliest possible opportunity?

I think the noble Baroness is referring to Schedule 3, which has been under consideration since 2010. It is important that we consider the most efficient and effective way of securing the objectives of that. Although a final decision has still not been made, we believe this can be better achieved through continued improvements to national planning policy and the adoption of maintenance approaches, rather than commencing Schedule 3. That is why we have strengthened the national planning policy on that important issue.

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that at the micro level, small areas of open ground such as gardens, and particularly front gardens, are an important part of a natural drainage system, particularly in urban areas? Can she tell the House whether there is any active discouragement coming from local authorities, or indeed from government, to stop people or in any way discourage them from paving over important areas of open ground that are under their control?

The discouragement from doing that comes through the planning process. When this kind of paving over is done subsequent to that, it is very difficult to monitor it, but I am sure our local authorities take a very serious attitude. Indeed, when I was a county councillor I had areas in my own county division that were subject to flooding, and we went out, inspected and gave advice to householders about how they might take these things forward. It remains the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that there is proper drainage for local areas and to make sure that a small area of paving will not overwhelm the systems that are put in place to take the water away.

My Lords, when I was young, some time ago, it was more commonplace that councils cleared out the storm drains on a cyclical maintenance basis. Many councils on discretionary cost-cutting no longer do that; some exemplary councils do. Can the Minister ensure that her good office tells local councils that this should be done on a regular basis? When we get downpours, this is the reason we often get local flooding—there is no other reason.

I understand the noble Lord’s point, but the substantial cuts to local government funding imposed by the party opposite mean it has been very difficult for local authorities to fulfil all the functions they need to undertake. Our local authorities understand that it can be devastating for households and communities that are affected by flooding, particularly where we get sudden downpours and there is an influx of water. I know they take this very seriously. We have introduced a new fair funding formula, which has increased the funding substantially to local authorities. I am sure they take their responsibilities extremely seriously.

My Lords, our changing weather is bringing more frequent episodes of surface water flooding, and the importance of sustainable drainage systems in the new developments has been increasingly clear. While the revised National Planning Policy Framework strengthens expectations, what steps are the Government taking to ensure that local planning authorities have the expertise and resources to implement these requirements consistently?

I know I did so yesterday, but I welcome the noble Baroness to her place. She has great experience in local government and I look forward to working with her. She is quite right that it is important that local authorities take the maintenance seriously. Planning practice guidance already sets out that local authorities should be satisfied that all SUDS have clear maintenance and adoption arrangements in place for the lifetime of developments. In June we published new national standards on SUDS that introduce the need to consider the multiple benefits of SUDS—reuse, run-off quantity, water quality, amenity and biodiversity—and those standards should be used by developers to provide the best possible SUDS and by local planning authorities to assess the quality of proposals, with the aim that they will be consistently provided and, importantly, consistently maintained.

My Lords, large storage tanks can be used to store water at a time of flooding and then can be used in a dry period to pump off into the system. Are there any plans to extend the use of those tanks so that we can both deal with the flooding and provide water when we need it?

I cannot give my noble friend an answer to the specific question he asks, but the storage of water when it is available is critical. It was shocking to realise that we had not built a reservoir in the country for 30 years; we are now planning new reservoirs to store water. Also, during the passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Act we talked about on-farm storage, for example; it is perfectly possible for farmers to develop storage on their own land so that they can keep water when it is plentiful for the times when it is not.

My Lords, to continue from the previous question, large underground attenuation tanks are often used in residential developments as their answer to sustainable drainage. Can the Minister tell us what consideration has been given for the water that is stored in these tanks to be used as grey water for local people to use during times of drought?

I know that my colleagues in Defra are giving a great deal of thought to the provision of water—both clean water and water for other purposes—and they have established the Water Delivery Taskforce to make sure that water companies deliver on their planned investments to provide water and wastewater capacity. The Government have worked hard to secure £104 billion of private sector investment into the water sector over the next five years so that we can upgrade ageing pipes, sewage treatment works and so on, and in partnership with water companies, investors and communities we will introduce a new water reform Bill to modernise the entire system. The issues that the noble Baroness raises are really important. We need to be using all the water that we have access to, particularly in dry areas of the country—I live in the east of England, one of the driest areas in our country—and we need to make sure that we are making the best use of any rainfall we have. The Government are working closely with the industry to make sure we do just that.