Water Smart Growth Board created to drive sustainable housebuilding

(by Karma Loveday)

A Water Smart Growth Board has been set up to support the delivery of sustainable housing growth through better, more integrated water management across England.

Co-chaired by the Government and property developer Thakeham's chief executive Rob Boughton, the board brings together senior leaders from the Government, the housing sector, water industry, regulators, environmental bodies, academia and practitioners to drive ‘water-smart’ new homes: resilient, water‑efficient and supported by the right infrastructure and water management solutions that work for housing delivery, people and nature.

Linked to the Government’s Water Delivery Taskforce, the board seeks to: support relevant policy development; create a national roadmap for integrated water management in new houses; strengthen knowledge and grow skills; and establish a Community of Practice to share good practice and feedback on policy and implementation challenges and opportunities.

Four specialist Implementation Groups will begin work immediately:

• Delivering infrastructure for housing growth — identifying the barriers and solutions to planning for and securing water and wastewater connection, to enable sustainable growth and addressing approaches and solutions in water-constrained areas.

• Water efficiency — securing successful implementation of changes to Part G of the building regulations to improve water efficiency.

• Water reuse — developing recommendations on the practical approach, steps and timeline for incorporating potable and non-potable water reuse within new developments.

• Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) — securing successful implementation of the new SuDS standards, including the SuDS hierarchy and informing long-term maintenance.

The board has emerged from the Anglian Water-led Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC) project, which last week presented its final findings after four years of work at an event in London. An Ofwat Innovation Funded initiative, EWSC set out to address the joint challenges faced by the water and housing sectors, by identifying enablers to accelerate the uptake of integrated and sustainable water management in all new housing developments.

Speaking at the EWSC closing event last week, EWSC chair Jean Spencer said: “Delivering the homes the country needs requires us to think differently about water: how we plan for it, how we use it, and how we build resilience into our communities.

“The Water Smart Growth Board brings together the right partners to tackle these challenges collectively. By aligning the housing and water sectors, we can ensure that new development is not only sustainable but also future-proofed for the pressures of climate change and population growth.”

• Jean Spencer is to retire after making a huge personal contribution to pioneering better water resources planning. She chaired the working group behind Water UK’s 2016/17 Water resources long term planning framework report, which provided the strategic evidence base and recommendations for future water resource planning, focusing on long-term supply resilience. This helped lead to the National Infrastructure Commission’s Preparing for a drier future report, and the emergence of regional and national water resources planning. Spencer has more recently been independent chair of the National Framework for Water Resources and chair of the Water Industry Forum.