45 What are the main barriers to introducing SuDS into your projects?


ASSESSING THE PROBLEM


THE NEED FOR SUDS


In order to explain the signifi cance of the relatively slow adop- tion of uD, it is important to fi rst understand more deeply why  ooding is such a serious issue in the , and will continue to worsen as time passes.


looding is causing severe problems in this country. In 200, for instance, a ‘ ood event’ at ewkesbury’s ythe Water reat- ment Works left 10,000 homes without clean water for up to 1 days, necessitating a shut down of astle ead’s electricity sub-station, leaving 2,000 people without power in loucester for 2 hours. ore recently, throughout 2020, 1,0  ooding incidents were reported  largely during storms Dennis and iara  and 111 people lost their lives. adly, this is just the tip of the iceberg while already warmer climates will suffer more from the rising temperatures far more strongly, in orthern urope, heavy rainfall and rising sea levels are likely to become the major issue.


According to worrying reports from the Intergovernmental


anel on limate hange I, global temperatures have already risen by about 1.2, and if this increases to , the number of deaths from coastal  ood damage alone will increase by at least tenfold, says its recent report. nfortunately, at present ngland is woefully underprepared to deal with such changes  especially increased rainfall, with


a lack of strong legislation around  ood risk, and a continued pace of development creating impermeable surfaces on land at high risk.


In the housebuilding industry in particular, it is clear that action must be taken to prevent all developments from aggravat- ing this situation, and the responsibility to reduce surface water runoff and therefore reduce unsustainable building practices needs to be widely grasped, to make the difference. With the future and current need to address this problem being clear, and the effectiveness of uD in doing so proven, as part of our audience research we hoped to ascertain why they are not being specifi ed as standard.


THE BARRIERS TO ADOPTION


When asked how often our respondents utilise uD in their pro- jects, the majority  only occasionally, rarely or never do so. When asked what the main barriers were to introducing uD into their projects, a wide variety were listed, with costs the most common, cited by   arguably unsurprising, especially given the lightweight regulatory framework at present. here was some implication among respondents that the ov- ernment should weigh in, with 1 arguing that the overn- ment should commit more money to  ood protection, and only  disagreeing with this, and 10 being unsure. ontinuing the main barriers in descending order, some common issues listed included a lack of understanding around uD , a lack of clarity on responsibility 2, and a lack of enforced regulations .


his lack of clarity around responsibility was also evident in responses to multiple other questions in our survey. When asked who should be responsible for the maintenance of uD, for ex- ample, the three options available received fairly similar levels of support, suggesting some confusion as to an industry preference  1 said the responsibility lay with builders and developers,


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