4. Will the Minister make a statement on the impact of the sustainable urban drainage regulations on housing supply? OAQ53464

Research published by the Welsh Government in 2017 indicates that compliant, well-designed SuDS on new developments could save Wales nearly £1 billion in capital construction costs alone by 2021 and generate wider benefits not only for our environment, but for the broader economy, of £20 million per year.

I know what the Minister says, but she also tells us, as do other Ministers, that the Welsh Government is committed to a great increase in housing supply and what a priority this is. While she no doubt has worthy justifications for the particular regulations, does she accept that there is a trade-off between such a regulation that makes house building more expensive and more difficult for people who might undertake it and the amount of housing that will be supplied?

Will she also consider complaints that I've had from house builders about inconsistent interpretation of these regulations by different drainage-approval bodies and the intention of various planning authorities to come up with separate and potentially conflicting guidance as to how they should take these regulations into account? 

In terms of the interpretation of the regulations by SuDS approval bodies, then actually SuDS, as a water issue, is a matter for the Minister for environment, but I understand that local authorities should have been issued with guidance in terms of the approval bodies and how that is applied.

I don't think we can get away from the fact that we know that sustainable urban drainage systems will reduce the incidence of flood damage by 30 per cent, and I don't think this is a benefit that we can choose to ignore. I hear what the Member's saying in terms of—. I'm aware of the evidence in a paper submitted to the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee earlier in the month. It asserted that SuDS regulations could cause a 20 per cent reduction in density on housing estates, but this isn't consistent with the findings of the research that we commissioned by Environmental Policy Consulting, which was published in January 2017, and which found that, where SuDS are planned into developments from the outset, there appears to be no impact on the number of housing units, and this is consistent with the research of a wide range of professional bodies. However, we will continue to work with house builders, local authorities and all stakeholders to monitor the progress of this policy, and we'll be steadfast in our objective of not only developing efficient and effective long-term sustainable approaches to reducing flood risk, but our objective of building more houses.