Government policies on sustainable drainage criticised by MPs

The government has been criticised for its approach to sustainable drainage by the Environment Food, and Rural Affairs Committee.

The “Post-legislative scrutiny: Flood and Water Management Act 2010″ report said the government’s ambitious house building programme that aims to deliver one million new homes by 2020 must be achieved without an increase in flooding.

The report said that the government’s lacklustre attitude to implementing SuDS policies put communities at risk and called for tougher planning rules to ensure that all new developments are required to put in place high quality SuDS.

Environment Food, and Rural Affairs Committee Chair, Neil Parish MP said: “Plans to deliver some one million new homes by 2020 must be achieved without increasing flooding. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are an essential part of the solution as they provide a cost-effective, green method of removing surface water from built-up areas.

The MPs accused the government of doing little to prove its support for sustainable drainage having failed to implement a strong policy framework to encourage their use, leading to some developments having low quality installations.

Mr Parish said: “Standards for SuDS construction must be made statutory to provide a stronger basis for enforcement and make it easier for Water and Sewerage Companies to adopt SuDS.

“We call for an ending of the automatic right of new developments to connect surface water discharges to conventional sewerage systems to spur developers to develop sustainable alternatives.”

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