Suds Regulations
The SuDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage) Regulations 2024 are mandatory on all new
construction sites in the UK, ensuring they become complaint with the specific requirements,
as authorised by the SuDS Approval Body (SAB), even where Planning Permission is not
required, and including those areas that are not necessarily urban.
SuDS Regulations are intended to regulate and control the flow and movement of water across
the land, monitoring and guiding rainwater falling on roofs and other hard surfaces, to manage
the flow rates and volume, to prevent flooding and water pollution.
SuDS Plans are drawn up to cover areas of the locality, usually by Local Authorities, showing
the likely passage of water across that region, using hydrological surveys, combined with
topographical surveys measuring areas of hard standing, roadways etc, with levels and falls
used to indicate the amount of non-permeable ground and potential outlets or passages for
water movement.
The Regulations are also in place as part of an overall strategy to diminish the potential risks
of pollutants entering the drainage system, the preference being to allow water to penetrate
the soil where it may be cleansed prior to entering the streams and rivers which are all part of
the SuDS Regional Plans, rather than flowing untreated directly into the channels.
After 2015, any development of more than ten units required a Flood Risk Assessment and a
SuDS Strategy document or policy to be produced showing evidence of the builder’s proposals
for water disposal/dispersal as part of their planning application.
These proposals include the type and style of driveway (in particular) and hard standing areas,
indicating the permeability of their nominated products. In particular, the requirement to allow
water to penetrate the ground, and not cause problems with run-off into drainage systems and
overload the SuDS Regional or Local Assessment plans, during periods of heavy rainfall
which may result in flooding.
Hence, the importance to comply by ensuring that all proposed areas of paving, especially large
areas of impermeable paving e.g. porcelain, are laid over a permeable bed with appropriate
jointing compounds as part of the design.
