wrans/answers2025-11-11 conversation_27
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-11-11)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-11-11 conversation_27

Freddie van Mierlo:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to help ensure that new housing developments do not increase sewage network pressures through (a) incorrect and (b) inadequate wastewater connections; and what steps he is taking to help ensure that housing developers are held accountable for improper wastewater connections discovered after property completion. \p Matthew Pennycook: The government recognises the importance of water and wastewater provision on new developments.

As set out in Paragraph 7 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, including the provision of homes, commercial development and supporting infrastructure in a sustainable manner.

Sustainable development should be pursued both through the preparation and implementation of local development plans, and the application of policies in the framework.

The government is clear that housing must come with appropriate infrastructure, including appropriate water infrastructure. We believe that strategic issues such as water capacity are best dealt with at a strategic level through the plan-making process, rather than through individual planning applications.

A key function of local development plans is to guide development to the most suitable and sustainable locations and to ensure that the associated infrastructure requirements are addressed. Effective co-operation early in the plan-making process is essential to ensuring not only that housing and infrastructure need is appropriately planned for, but that they are aligned with each other. The NPPF makes it clear that local planning authorities should collaborate with each other and with other public bodies, including infrastructure providers, to identify relevant strategic matters to be addressed, including providing for sustainable water supplies.

Water companies are under a statutory duty to provide new water and sewerage connections to residential properties, as well as planning to meet the needs of growth as part of water resource management plans, and drainage and wastewater management plans. The water resources planning guideline published by the Environment Agency and Ofwat, sets out how those companies should forecast demand for water based on existing customers and planned levels of household and non-household growth, with the number of planned developments being based on published local plans.

Relevant planning practice guidance sets out that good design and mitigation measures should be secured during development, both through site-specific and non-site-specific policies on water infrastructure. The revised NPPF published on 12 December 2024 makes clear that developments of all sizes should use sustainable drainage techniques when the development could have drainage impacts and should have appropriate maintenance arrangements in place. We continue to explore whether more needs to be done to ensure sustainable drainage technologies are taken up more widely in new development, either through planning policy or by commencing schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, and a decision on the best way forward will be made in the coming months.

Ensuring that we take a strategic spatial planning approach to the management of water, including tackling pollution and managing pressures on the water environment at a catchment, regional and national scale, was a core objective of the independent review into the regulatory system of the water sector. The government’s full response to the Independent Water Commission’s recommendations will be published through a White Paper published for consultation this Autumn. This will include responses to recommendations which intend to unlock growth by ensuring water infrastructure investment is aligned with regional and national economic priorities and remove long-standing barriers to development.

There are various routes for property owners to seek compensation predominantly through their new build warranty scheme or where the developer has failed to comply with the Water Industry Act 1991, they can be approached directly for compensation with the property owner having grounds for legal action.