Water: Conservation

(asked on 17th July 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing incentives for developers to install (a) rainwater capture and (b) other decentralised water systems in new homes.


Answered by
Emma Hardy Portrait
Emma Hardy
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 22nd July 2025

In June this year, the Government introduced new national standards, making clear that sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) should be designed to cope with changing climatic conditions as well as delivering wider water infrastructure benefits in the form of flood prevention and storm overflow reduction, offering reuse opportunities, reducing run off, and helping to improve water quality, amenity, and biodiversity. The standards should be used by local authorities when assessing applications for development which could affect drainage on or around the site, see paragraphs 181 and 182 of the National Planning Policy Framework.

Across much of the UK, our drainage and sewerage network is set up as a combined system (rainwater and wastewater), typical of Victorian design. Climate change, urban creep and a growing population have exacerbated the pressures on the system.

The National assessment of flood and coastal erosion risk in England published in December 2024 sets out the flood risk to treatment works and water pumping stations.

The Environment Agency’s National Framework for Water Resources 2025 emphasises the importance of water catchments operating naturally, to be more resilient to challenges such as flooding, drought, and water scarcity. The Framework explains how we expect an integrated approach to be taken forward.

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