Created: 1st July, 2025
Gareth joined Barker in 2024, based in our Essex head office.
He is a Chartered Civil Engineer with more than 20-years’ experience in Civil Engineering solutions & has lead both Civil & Structural Engineering teams on projects from conception to project delivery, with values exceeding a billion pounds both nationally and internationally.
He holds a deep understanding of Infrastructure Engineering, focused on a value led design ethos to complex situations, which has allowed the positive integration of infrastructure into coordinated design masterplans across all sectors.
In June 2025, the UK government released the first major update to the National Standards for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in over a decade. As climate pressures mount and housing demand intensifies, this guidance sets a new direction, redefining SuDS not just as flood mitigation tools but as key elements of healthy, resilient, and green communities.
The revised standards, published by DEFRA, are designed to support the delivery of 1.5 million new homes while ensuring that drainage systems play a vital role in tackling water pollution, increasing biodiversity, and enhancing amenity value.
Where previous guidance often framed SuDS as a technical necessity, the 2025 standards take a holistic, place-based approach. SuDS are now firmly positioned as multifunctional green infrastructure, expected to contribute not only to surface water management but also to public space, biodiversity, and climate resilience.
Two new core standards, Standard 5 (Amenity) and Standard 6 (Biodiversity), underline this shift, requiring designers to incorporate natural features that benefit people and wildlife. A strong example of these principles in action comes from Barker’s Structural and Civil Engineering team, whose project in Oxfordshire was shortlisted in the 2025 Susdrain CIRIA SuDS Awards. The design delivered high-quality water management integrated with natural landscaping, wildflower zones, and public seating areas, showcasing exactly the kind of multifunctionality the new standards now demand.
Responding to long-standing industry concerns, the updated standards are structured with much greater clarity. Each standard includes:
This structured format aims to eliminate ambiguity and foster consistency in SuDS design and approval across England.
The guidance strengthens expectations around water quality and runoff management. It mandates thorough risk assessments for pollution, especially from high-risk land uses, and promotes the SuDS management train, a hierarchical approach using source, site, and regional controls to manage water more effectively.
Key updates include:
Another major step forward is Standard 7, which focuses on lifecycle design and the importance of future maintenance. It encourages early planning for adoption, clear performance outcomes, and long-term responsibility, all critical steps to avoid common pitfalls where SuDS fail due to neglect or poor design.
Designers are urged to consider the whole SuDS journey from construction and operation to maintenance, decommissioning, and asset transfer.
As Barker’s shortlisted project demonstrates, planning for long-term performance through detailed maintenance strategies and community engagement can be both feasible and valuable.
The 2025 SuDS standards align with broader changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which now calls for SuDS on developments of all sizes, not just major schemes. The standards are also supported by new digital tools from uksuds.com, including runoff calculators, infiltration tools, and maintenance planners to support adoption.
While the standards represent a progressive leap, one key limitation remains: they are non-statutory. This leaves room for local interpretation and risks inconsistency in planning decisions. The absence of a statutory SuDS approving body (SAB) as originally proposed under Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act further clouds responsibility for long-term adoption and upkeep.
Until SuDS design and approval are backed by statutory mechanisms, the potential for truly integrated, nature-based drainage systems may remain partially untapped.
The 2025 National SuDS Standards mark a paradigm shift: from grey to green, from reactive to proactive, and from isolated systems to integrated design. They provide the tools and structure to support sustainable urban growth and environmental resilience.
As exemplified by our Structural and Civil team’s innovative and community-minded design work, the sector is more than ready to meet these ambitions. The challenge now lies in turning strong guidance into standard practice to ensure that sustainable drainage is no longer optional, but an embedded part of placemaking for every development in the UK.