Sustainable drainage planning trends
The sustainable drainage planning index stands at 291: sustainable drainage takes almost three times its 2016 share of planning applications.
Sustainable drainage applications since 2016
Sustainable drainage applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredMost of the rise since mid 2025
The sustainable drainage planning index stood at 179 in the 12 months to May 2025 and 291 by September 2026, its highest since 2016. The climb coincides with Defra's national standards for sustainable drainage, published on 19 June 2025.
Scotland at twice the UK share
From 2023 to 2025 Scottish councils received 18 sustainable drainage applications in every 10,000, against 9.1 across the UK. London received 2.1. Fife leads all councils with 98 since 2016, ahead of Somerset on 77 and West Northamptonshire on 66.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 139 sustainable drainage applications in Q3 2026: 14 in every 10,000 applications, against 11 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 26% higher than a year earlier.
Sustainable drainage applications each quarter
139 in Q3 2026, against 117 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 14 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 11 a year earlier.
Where sustainable drainage applications concentrate
By region
Sustainable drainage applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Fife
Scotland · 36 in every 10,000 98 -
Somerset
South West · 14 in every 10,000 77 -
West Northamptonshire
East Midlands · 19 in every 10,000 66 -
Dumfries and Galloway
Scotland · 38 in every 10,000 63 -
Central Bedfordshire
East of England · 21 in every 10,000 59 -
North Yorkshire
Yorkshire and Humber · 8.8 in every 10,000 59 -
Herefordshire
West Midlands · 24 in every 10,000 55 -
Perth and Kinross
Scotland · 29 in every 10,000 52 -
East Lindsey
East Midlands · 39 in every 10,000 51 -
Stratford-on-Avon
West Midlands · 20 in every 10,000 51
Latest sustainable drainage applications
- Land approximately 66M SE of 103 Sixtowns Road Draperstown New free range poultry unit, to house 31.2k laying hens, new litter store, swale, meal silos, retaining wall, pv panels to the roof, new access onto Sixtowns Road and associated landscaping plan
- Approx 66m East of 31 Ballynagarrick Road Carryduff Proposed new free range laying house for 14k birds including concrete aprons to front and rear, meal silos, litter store, landscaping , swale for storm water attentuation, pv panels to roof of poultry house, utilising existing farm lane and access onto Ballynagarrick Road
- Underhill Llanmadoc Swansea Erection of part two storey/part single storey side extension with photovoltaic panels, installation of an air source heat pump, package sewage treatment plant and rain gardens, erection of a detached outbuilding, and landscaping works including wildlife ponds.
- Sinah Warren Holiday Village, Ferry Road, Hayling Island Retention of gated vehicular access. Create 1m high landscaped bund and related 0.5m deep swale. Construct 3 detached, single storey buildings (Commercial stables with associated hay barn and open sided general store). Demolish existing single storey detached building and construct larger, detached, single storey security gatehouse. Form enclosed, permeable hardstanding, open storage area with 20 No. shipping containers positioned within, providing domestic/boat/campervan/touring caravan/trailer storage facility. Position 10 other shipping containers north of open-sided store with associated skip bays, for use by local builders
- Land East Of Gamston District Centre Ambleside Gamston Nottinghamshire Outline application with all matters reserved except access for residential development of up to 550 dwellings, provision of up to 12.3 ha of Employment Land, land for the provision of a secondary school (Class F1), land for the provision of gypsy and traveller site (0.6 ha), associated infrastructure including open space, landscaping, footpaths/cycleways, access roads, active travel bridge over the A52, associated engineering works, sustainable drainage systems, with detailed accesses onto the A52 and Tollerton Lane. All other matters to be reserved.
- The Moonraker Hotel, Trowle, Trowbridge Extension of the existing hotel to provide replacement function facilities (ceremony room, wedding breakfast room, bar, kitchen and ancillary stores) and 10 additional guest bedrooms, following demolition of existing outbuildings, wedding barn and former staff accommodation; car parking including reinforced-grass overflow parking; landscaping, sustainable drainage, package treatment plant and associated works
Questions
How many sustainable drainage planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 4,250 since January 2016, 616 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share of all applications is the highest since 2016.
Where are the most sustainable drainage applications made?
Fife, Somerset and West Northamptonshire have received the most since 2016.
Does sustainable drainage need its own approval?
In Wales, yes: since 7 January 2019, construction work with drainage implications covering 100 square metres or more needs approval from a SuDS Approving Body. In England, Defra's national standards of June 2025 are non-statutory and apply through planning applications.
About Plota
Plota is the UK's most visited planning search, according to Similarweb. It shows every new planning application from every UK council, read daily from 390 planning registers, with past applications back to 2016 from more than 420 registers, including those of councils since merged. It also covers planning committee decisions, HMO licences and premises licences.
How this is measured
What needs an application
In Wales, construction covering 100 square metres or more has needed a separate drainage approval since January 2019. In England, Defra's 2025 standards are non-statutory and apply through planning applications.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names sustainable drainage or a close variant of the words, by the date each council received them. These are planning applications, not completed schemes; the largest energy and infrastructure projects are consented nationally rather than by councils, so they sit outside these counts.
- How matches are checked: we read the 200 most recent sustainable drainage applications and 20 from every year since 2016 to confirm each one belongs.
- Topic counts leave out, by design, works to trees and applications that only discharge conditions, amend an earlier permission or approve reserved matters, which follow a scheme already counted. Everything else is counted.
- A share is the number out of every 10,000 applications over the previous 12 months. Each topic is a number in every 10,000 planning applications, so trends compare when overall planning activity changes; the share still moves when either the topic's count or the total does. The sustainable drainage planning index sets the 2016 share at 100, so 200 means twice as common as in 2016.
- Source: the planning registers of every UK council, January 2016 to September 2026, read on 9 November 2026.
- Planning is seasonal, so each quarter is compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Year on year: each topic's and theme's share of all applications in Q3 2026, against Q3 2025, at every council we hold. A share is the number in every 10,000 applications. Shares compare across councils and years; raw counts do not.
- Left out of the topic shares: Birmingham's applications from June to September 2026: a validation backlog at the council since June 2026: of 685 reference numbers it issued in September, its register lists 288. The same months a year earlier are left out too, so every comparison covers the same councils.
- Download the data (CSV): every topic and theme, each quarter since 2016.
Sources
- Defra published national standards for sustainable drainage systems on 19 June 2025, describes them as non-statutory and applying to England, and says all appropriate planning applications should demonstrate how they have been met. gov.uk
- The Sustainable Drainage (Approval and Adoption) (Wales) Order 2018 came into force on 7 January 2019, exempts construction covering less than 100 square metres and applies whether or not planning permission is required. legislation.gov.uk