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Flood and Water Management Bill

We are trying to achieve the same end, and we debated the matter in depth in Committee. The water companies are part and parcel of the process and need to be consulted in connection with the flood risk management function, but, as was explained in detail in Committee, we do not consider it appropriate to make them the subject of the same statutory duty of consultation. The hon. Members for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood) and for Brecon and Radnorshire (Mr. Williams) tabled amendment 23, which seeks to amend paragraph 6 (1)(b) of schedule 3, so that if there is no unitary authority for an area, the role of the SUDS approving body would be given not to the relevant county council but to the local planning authority. Again, we debated that in Committee. I will not restate the whole debate, but we consider that SUDS approval and adoption responsibilities fit together, leading to robust well-designed SUDS that can be efficiently and effectively maintained. Placing these functions at the county council level fits well alongside those councils' existing responsibilities for highways maintenance. We expect many SUDS to be located in or alongside roads, especially in dense urban areas. More importantly, county councils will have wider responsibilities as lead local flood authorities under clause 6(7). County councils also have responsibility for surface water management planning, and on a simple geographical basis, have a much wider overview of surface water and flooding issues. Placing the SUDS approving body—the SAB—at the county, rather than the district, level will mean the SAB has the more strategic overview and expertise in determining drainage applications. Of course, not all drainage applications needing approval by the SUDS approving body will also require planning permission. However, where planning permission is required, we have made the SAB a statutory consultee to the planning process and we have clearly mapped out how the process would work. Finally, as I said in Committee and reiterate now, there is nothing to prevent unitary or county local authorities, in their role as SUDS approving bodies, from transferring, by agreement, their approval functions to a local planning authority. However, the SUDS approving body would retain responsibility and liability for SUDS, so accountability stays there. Finally, I shall deal with the Government amendments in this group and make some additional points. In Committee I agreed to consider an amendment tabled by the hon. Members for Vale of York and for Upminster which would make internal drainage boards statutory consultees to SUDS approving bodies. In response, amendment 53 provides for that to be done. On amendment 54, in Committee I agreed to consider an amendment tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Dr. Blackman-Woods) on regulations covering the timing and procedure for applications to the SUDS approving body. As I said in Committee, it seems eminently sensible to enable the Minister to make regulations about the timing and procedure for determining applications for approval, and also that the regulations should be able to specify what should happen if the timetable is not complied with. Such a power will enable the Government to ensure that the SUDS approval process is fully in line with the timetable for determining planning applications. I therefore commend the amendment to the House. Finally, amendments 55 and 56 are minor technical amendments. Amendment 55 makes the drafting of the Bill internally consistent. Amendment 56 closes a small loophole in the provisions on adopting sustainable drainage systems. As the Bill stands, those parts of a drainage system located partly on and partly off a road are maintained by the SUDS approving body and the Highways Authority respectively. Both must maintain the SUDS to national standards and approved proposals. However, we need to be clear about arrangements to maintain, to national standards, SUDS located entirely in a publicly maintained road. This situation will be extremely rare but must be captured for completeness. Without the amendment, the road that is also an entire SUDS would be maintained to function as a road, but not as a SUDS, potentially leaving properties served by those SUDS with inadequate drainage. I hope those comments are helpful. I now turn to the work that has been done with stakeholders on the mandatory build standards. The water industry has provided voluntary criteria to developers for the adoption of sewers since December 1981. However, there are often no discernible benefits for the water company or developer in pursing the adoption process, and as we have heard, that results in homeowners ending up with the liability for those assets. DEFRA has been working across a range of stakeholders including, but not exclusively, the Home Builders Federation, the National House-Building Council, Ofwat, the Consumer Council for Water, the Local Government Association, Communities and Local Government and Water UK among others to provide a basis for consultation on a mandatory build standard for gravity, foul sewers and lateral drains. We will consult similarly on SUDS, and we are already engaging with stakeholders on national standards for SUDS. On the discussions with Water UK, I am not sure that the hon. Member for Vale of York raised any particular point, but I wrote to all members of the Public Bill Committee recording the results of the meeting. Let me quote from letter that went out on 28 January:""We had a good discussion about the sustainable drainage provisions. I clarified the arrangements for SUDS maintenance, including the statutory duty on the SUDS Approving Body to maintain SUDS to national standards…We discussed the sewerage undertakers, listed the statutory consultees to the SUDS Approving body"."