The draft Water and Floods Bill is likely to include a duty for local authorities to adopt sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) in new housing developments, a government spokesman has confirmed. But it is unclear how long-term maintenance costs will be financed.
Steven Jones, manager of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) flooding and water bill team, insisted the Bill would ‘sort out who owns SUDS’. DEFRA was looking at the adoption of SUDS with new housing developments and sewerage systems, he told the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management conference in London last week.
But Richard Wills, director for development at Lincolnshire County Council, warned the main issue was ‘as always, how this will be financed’. He told Surveyor: ‘The capital cost will be no problem – developers would build them and then recover their costs in the sale price.’
But the maintenance costs were unlikely to be recovered unless there was some sort of payment up front to cover future liabilities. He drew a parallel with the adoption of highways, where the council accepted the highway if built to the correct standards, and then absorbed future maintenance costs.
‘Yet we probably don’t know enough about the long-term cost of maintenance for SUDS, whereas with roads, we have more than 100 years of experience!’ Wills welcomed DEFRA’s intention to give a significant role for councils on local flood risk management, but again added: ‘Our main concern will be whether there will be sufficient funding to implement all the duties effectively.’
Jones told the conference there was a ‘strong argument’ for introducing standards for flood defences, and said the Bill might include incentives for farmers to manage water resources better.
Wills added: ‘In Lincolnshire, there will also need to be a debate about the impact of flood risk on agriculture, given the importance of this industry in supplying a significant proportion of the nation’s food.’ The draft Bill will be published in the spring.
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