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Improving surface water drainage
Latest News
- 06 October 2009: Criteria for local authorities to bid for £5m funding for early actions to tackle local flooding is now available.
- 28 September 2009 - News release: Surface water drainage charges break for community groups
- 15 September 2009 – Methodology for £16m allocation and Rank order of settlements susceptible to surface water flooding published.
What is Surface Water Drainage?
Surface water flooding occurs where high rainfall events exceed the drainage capacity in an area. Such events can also lead to serious flooding of property and possessions where surface water flows and collects.
What are we doing?
As part of the Government's response to the Pitt Review, Ministers announced investment of £15 million to help local authorities co-ordinate and lead local flood management work. As an immediate step, six local authorities are being funded to develop first edition surface water management plans (SWMPs).
On 18th August 2009 Ministers announced how the £15 million would be allocated to local authorities and the list of 77 local authorities who would be awarded grants (PDF 14KB) to develop SWMPs in the areas considered to be at highest risk. Defra have written to the local authorities concerned with more details. Details of the methodology (PDF 296KB) used for the allocation and a list of all settlements in England in rank order (PDF 2.2MB) by risk are available to view online. If local authorities have strong evidence that suggests the methodology may have underestimated the risk in their area they should notify Defra by October 30th 2009 who may reconsider individual allocations.
Please send any questions you have regarding the allocation of this funding to surface.water@defra.gsi.gov.uk.
How to bid for funding from £5million allocation for early actions to tackle local flood risk
An application form (Microsoft word document 148KB), which includes criteria for local authorities to bid for the £5m of funding for early actions is now available.
The bidding process will be open for a period of approximately two months followed by a period of assessment. We expect to be able to inform successful applicants in January 2010 and funding will be available from April 2010.
Bids will be open to local authorities in England for individual works or studies between £20k-£100k aiming to achieve quick wins to manage and alleviate local flood risk. Local authorities can submit more than one bid for their area and priority will be given to bids for locations which are not receiving funding as part of the £9.7million allocation for surface water management plans in the potential highest risk areas.
A worked example of a bid (PDF 237KB) is provided for your guidance.
Surface Water Management Plans
Living Draft Surface Water Plan Guidance Version 1 is available to local authorities on how to produce of Surface Water Management Plans.
We aim to publish revised guidance in the Autumn to support the development of the 77 SWMPs announced in August 2009.
Capacity and skills building
Part of the governments announcement in August included an additional £1m for buidling skills and capacity within local authorities. This will include the provision of training, guidance and support tools to all local authorities and a programme for this will be developed with local authorities and their representatives over the next few months.
Related Reports
- Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology – POST note on Urban Flooding (PDF)
- Defra - Water Strategy, Future Water (PDF) (2008)
- Defra - Vivid Economics Report on Funding and charging arrangements for sustainable urban drainage systems (PDF) (May 2007)
- Communities and Local Government - Permeable paving Impact Assessment (2008)
- DTI Global Watch Mission on Sustainable Drainage Systems (PDF) (registration required)
- CIRIA Good Practice Guidance on Designing for exceedance in urban drainage
- CIRIA Good Practice Guidance on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, including Local authority network on drainage and flood risk management
Links
Any queries related to improving surface water drainage should be sent via email to surface.water@defra.gsi.gov.uk.
Page last
modified: 06 October 2009
Page published: 7 February 2008