Surface-water flooding has no clear owner and SuDS Schedule 3 is unenacted

Responsibility for surface-water flooding is split across lead local flood authorities, water companies and planning, with no clear hierarchy (CCC; Environmental Audit Committee). Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 - which would mandate sustainable drainage (SuDS) and remove the automatic right to connect new drainage to public sewers - remains uncommenced in England (it is in force in Wales); a 2025 amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was withdrawn. DEFRA's 2025 National SuDS Standards are non-statutory.

Surface-water flooding threatens roughly three million properties and is the flood source rising fastest with climate change, yet the least governed. The automatic right to connect keeps loading ageing sewers, and voluntary SuDS standards are widely ignored.

Commence Schedule 3 in England (mandatory SuDS plus ending the automatic right to connect) and empower the Environment Agency to oversee and monitor delivery across all sources of flooding.

// State-led: Instrument: commencement order for FWMA 2010 Schedule 3 plus Environment Agency empowerment; purely a government decision.

Schedule 3 is already law and live in Wales, three million properties face the fastest-rising flood source, and the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is an open vehicle to commence it.