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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that new (a) residential and (b) commercial developments do not overload local sewers.

The Government’s Plan for Water (2023) recognises Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) as a measure that reduces the risk of surface water flooding and has committed to rolling out SuDS in all new developments. Government is now looking at how best to implement, considering scope, threshold and process.

This reduces the pressure on our traditional infrastructure by reducing the overall amount of water that ends up in the sewers and storm overflow discharges, mitigating flood risk and preventing pollution from untreated sewage ending up in our waterways.