Do surface water drainage fee rebates incentivise sustainable drainage retrofit?: A case study of households in England and Wales

Internationally, surface water drainage fees are increasingly used to finance stormwater management. In the UK, these fees were first made transparent in 2011, so as to drive SuDS retrofit through a fee rebate available to disconnected households. However, the success of this initiative is unknown. Using Freedom of Information law, requests were made to all the Water and Sewerage companies in England and Wales, on the uptake of the rebate. Results show very low uptake nationally, at most 0.125% of all dwellings each year, and very likely much lower once bill corrections for dwellings never connected to sewer are considered. This is a concern at a time when government has introduced a new plan to combat highly problematic storm overflows. Although the rebate system has failed to incentivise household SuDS retrofit, international experience suggests it can do so if suitably restructured and supported.