Debate contribution: Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill: Consideration Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Justin McNulty on .
- MLA
- Mr Justin McNulty
- Party at the time
- Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Date
- 12 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill: Consideration Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5785905
Read the official Assembly record
Text
As members of the Infrastructure Committee, we support all the amendments that have been proposed and see them as providing important tidying up and clarification of the Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill. In my role as an MLA and as a civil engineer, I have spoken with industry, which has expressed a strong appetite for guidance on sustainable urban drainage systems that are not just hard SuDS. The current guidelines in the North provide only for limiting the storm water run-off from any site to 10 litres per second per hectare and to accommodate storage, generally on-site, in underground tanks or oversized pipes. Provisions have been made with regard to soft SuDS and offsetting. However, those have been agreed and determined only on a very local, ad hoc and individual basis. Developers are crying out for guidance and criteria that they can design to for approval in relation to construction of soft SuDS solutions like swales and ponds. The expectation is that the Bill will provide clarity on design guidance and for responsibility and maintenance of such. The SuDS Bill is long overdue to help to alleviate flooding and provide associated flood remediation, define and regulate SuDS design and construction, regulate water use and make provisions regarding communication with sewers. As laid out in the July 2026 Turley report, waste water has become a major growth constraint for construction. It is estimated that around 55,000 homes are delayed or impeded due to some level of capacity constraints: no drains, no cranes. The Turley report states that the SuDS Bill will reduce future pressure on the waste water system but not as a near-term solution to the current capacity crisis. Therefore, while the Bill is a positive step forward, the Department must collaborate with industry to find long-lasting solutions to address the waste water capacity crisis that is a barrier to construction and economic development to the tune of £11 billion in an economic opportunity gap by 2040. I will say that again: the current lack of capacity in our waste water system and the lack of a plan to address that inadequate capacity will cost our economy £11 billion by 2040.
363 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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