The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) review of current planning policy for sustainable drainage (SuDS) in England has recently been published – but we question whether this exercise could have had more to do with validating the Government’s current policy approach, rather than an accurate and critical review of the application and […]

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Check out the latest version of CIRIA’s B£ST – a tool for valuing the multiple benefits of blue-green infrastructure. Free to download CIRIA has developed a free tool and guidance, B£ST (Benefits Estimation Tool – valuing the benefits of blue-green infrastructure) for use on PCs. It makes assessing the benefits of blue-green infrastructure easier, without […]

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Net Gain: A developer’s commitment to enhancing biodiversity Posted by: Natural England, Posted on: 10 January 2019 Guest blog from Louise Clarke, Head of Sustainable Places at Berkeley Group, outlining the organisation’s approach to biodiversity net gain. The role of new development Biodiversity plays an important role within our towns and cities as it helps to improve […]

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Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are an important way of managing surface water runoff in built developments.  Partly or wholly natural in design, SuDS were first introduced to the English planning system in 2010. National planning policy encourages SuDS in all major developments ‘unless there is clear evidence that this would be inappropriate’, while as of […]

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Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) will become mandatory for new property developments in Wales from next year, following regulations introduced by the Welsh Government. As part of the regulations, ‘SuDS Approving Bodies’ or ‘SABs’ will be set up within every local authority to approve drainage plans. The SAB or local planning authorities will have powers to […]

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The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee has accused Ministers of “dragging their feet” on action to protect people from heatwaves and is calling on the Government to do more. The Committee was commenting on the Government’s response to its report – Heatwaves: adapting to climate change – published in July warning that there will be 7,000 […]

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The Environment Agency’s head honcho has warned that the UK’s biggest flood risk, surface water, is growing. Reported in Water Briefing, Sir James Bevan told delegates at the CIWEM Surface Water Management Conference that surface water flooding threatens more people and properties than any other form of flood risk. Over 3 million properties in England […]

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