Civil engineers and architects are lobbying to ensure housing legislation will protect homes from flooding…
A number of organisations have joined together to ensure flood prevention control measures form part of the Housing and Planning Bill.
Among the lobbying group is the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Chartered Institution of Water & Environmental Management (CIWEM), the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and Water UK.
The group are calling for the Bill, which is in the process of passing through the House of Lords, to include measures to prevent flooding. It warned the Housing and Planning Bill will lead to new developments, which will place additional pressure on drainage and flood defence infrastructure.
Among the issues being lobbied are calls to amend the Bill to restrict the automatic right of developers to connect new homes to the existing drainage infrastructure. The group warned many of these systems are already overloaded and that developers should be instead looking to install low-cost sustainable drainage systems (SuDS).
While attempts were made in the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 to legislate this it was not implemented. Instead planning guidelines were put into place requiring SuDS, but lobbyists said this had not improved flood risks.
Former ICE president David Balmforth said: “Flooding is one of the major challenges facing society today, yet we continue to add to the problem by building new homes in a way that makes flooding more likely.
“This does not have to be the case as there is a proven and low cost solution using SuDs. The Pitt Review and the Committee on Climate Change view them as a force for good; so should the law.
“We urge the Lords to send the Commons a bill that will help protect society from flooding.”
CIWEM chief executive Terry Fuller also commented: “It is absurd that in the current age we still allow developers to build homes and automatically connect to the sewer system without any consideration of the impact of doing so.
“This amendment would set us on the right path to encourage developers to consider flood risk from the outset.”
An amendment on SuDS will be debated today [25 April] and is backed by Labour’s Baroness Barbara Young, Baroness Parminter of the Liberal Democrats, and cross-bencher Lord John Krebs.
Speaking to the Guardian Parminter said: “We see this as a vitally important step in cutting down the risk of surface water flooding.
“[At present] there are big let-out clauses for housing developers, as they don’t have to put measures in place that would help prevent flooding, and that is putting people at risk.”
She added: “If you buy a new house, you have the right to expect that it will be built to the highest standards.
“People would be shocked to find that they could be liable to flooding because of the failure [of developers] to take these basic measures.”
