Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist on 9 March (HL1921), whether a housing development is allowed to proceed before additional wastewater infrastructure has been provided.

The developer is responsible for providing effective drainage to serve their development and agreeing this with the local planning authority. There is also statutory provision for developers to fund additional sewerage infrastructure required to accommodate flows from a proposed development. If there are concerns arising from a planning application about the capacity of wastewater infrastructure, applicants can be asked to provide information about how the proposed development will be drained and wastewater dealt with; and if they build their development in breach of the permission, they may face enforcement action by the local planning authority.