16 Jan 2025

Useful article in New Civil Engineer Water industry experts have expressed dismay at the news that mandatory sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) for developments over 100m2 is not being introduced, despite the Department for Food, Rural Affairs and Environment’s (Defra’s) promise. Despite the government saying that Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 would […]

12 Sep 2024

UKWIR has published a useful new report: Improved understanding of retrofit SuDS whole life cost, carbon and delivery to enable deployment It shows that the costs, carbon and wider delivery complexities of retrofitting SuDS are generally poorly understood and very sensitive to assumptions and the local context. This is a risk for companies when committing […]

05 Jun 2024

A new report from the Royal Academy of Engineering (National Engineering Policy Centre) looks at the priorities for mitigating health risks from wastewater pollution. This report examines the interventions available to reduce the public health risks associated with using open waters for recreation that may be polluted with faecal organisms from human waste in sewage. […]

20 Mar 2024

The government has (13 March 2024) responded to the Commission’s study on reducing the risks of surface water flooding, published in November 2022. While it accepts the principles behind a number of the Commission’s recommendations, the government’s response – in the Commission’s view – makes few new commitments on steps to manage surface water flood risk more actively, […]

06 Mar 2024

The government has announced that 19 councils are set to be granted exceptional financial support for the next financial year. In principle support for these councils for 2024-25 is worth around £1.5bn, enabling them to use capital receipts from asset sales or borrowing to fund day-to-day costs up to that amount. Further in principle support for […]

14 Feb 2024

A Fresh Water Future describes how better water management requires a spatially relevant approach, involving all the relevant actors in a way that empowers them to be engaged and to act. While this is a fine aim, SuDS champion Jo Bradley debates whether we can ever achieve it?

17 Jan 2024

The BBC reports on concerns raised by residents over new road flood prevention measures in Mansfield. This shows the challenges in rolling out more than 20,000 SuDS to be installed across the town, which would reduce flood risk for 90,000 people. Key concerns relate to access and loss of car parking. Read more

17 Jan 2024

The latest edition of Landscape, the journal of the Landscape Institute includes a SuDS special feature, SuDS regulation across the UK, NFM and loads of case studies. More details: This edition starts with the landscape of the Natural History Museum and the revolution in SuDS. It revisits the esplanade at Dover; indulges in the joys […]