28 May 2019

Seen in the context of SuDS this is a useful pot of money that put to use to demonstrate the value of trees in relation to mitigating urban flooding. Defra – Government delivers new £10m fund to plant over 130,000 urban trees Environment Secretary Michael Gove announces grants will be made available over the next […]

23 May 2019

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 […]

20 Feb 2019

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 […]

19 Jan 2019

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 […]

19 Jan 2019

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 […]

10 Jan 2019

Two articles 1. Highways England has published details of thousands of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in use on the road network in the Greater London area. The organisation responsible for operating, maintaining and improving England’s motorways and major has published the information in response to a Freedom of Information request about the use of SuDS […]

20 Nov 2018

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 […]