Part 5 of the Bill (Water) includes measures intended to support new and existing internal drainage boards. Internal drainage boards undertake important work around managing local water levels and flood risk management. To fund this work, internal drainage boards charge the communities they serve. The Bill amends the Land Drainage Act 1991 to enable certain valuation calculations to be provided for in secondary legislation, so that necessary updates to the calculations (including data sources) can be readily made.
Local government must be involved in the development of secondary legislation, and this should ensure that councils views are taken into account before drainage boards are expanded or established. In addition, the council tax levy paid to drainage boards should not be counted towards the cap on council tax rises. Any additional costs should not fall on council tax payers.
A Land Drainage Consent is required from the relevant authority if certain types of works are to be carried out on an ordinary watercourse. As of the 6th April 2012, all Lead Local Flood Authorities (county and unitary councils) are responsible for ordinary watercourse consents.
A survey carried out by the LGA and ADEPT found that the median cost of processing application is £250, five times the nationally set fee of £50 (specified in the Land Drainage Act 1991) (Land drainage consent processing cost research, LGA and ADEPT 2018, unpublished). This means that local taxpayers are subsidising 80 per cent of the cost of processing land drainage consent applications because nationally set fees do not cover the full costs. We are recommending that:
- The Government should allow councils to increase the application fee as soon as possible to a level which more accurately reflects the processing costs. Analysis for the LGA showed that the mean cost of processing Land Drainage Consents was £340.41 and the median was £250. This should be a starting point and any revised application fee should sit within this range.
- There should be a commitment to allow future increases to the national Land Drainage fee in line with inflation. Councils should be able to set higher fees locally, where there is a case for doing so.
We welcomed the finding of the Independent Review of surface water flooding carried out for Defra (August 2020). We are concerned that further legislation on sustainable drainage systems would be a significant burden for councils in their planning role. We will be working with Defra and councils to take forward the recommendations of the review.