Policy information sourced from Brentwood Local Plan

BE02: Water Efficiency and Management

Water Efficiency

Development should incorporate water conservation measures in the proposals and meet the minimum standards for water efficiency as set out below:

  • New residential development will be required to achieve limits of 110 litres per person per day.
  • New non-residential development is expected to meet BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating in category Wat 01.
  • Major developments and high or intense water use developments (such as hotels) is expected to provide more substantial water management measures such as rain/ and grey water harvesting.

Waste Water and Sewage

Development proposals should:

  • seek to improve the water environment and demonstrate that adequate wastewater infrastructure capacity is provided;
  • ensure that misconnections between foul and surface water networks are eliminated and not easily created through future building alterations;
  • incorporate measures such as smart metering, water saving and recycling, including retrofitting and rain/grey water harvesting, to help to achieve lower water consumption rates and to maximise futureproofing;

Applications will need to demonstrate that the sewerage network has adequate capacity both on and off-site to serve the development and to assess the need to contribute to any additional connections for the development to prevent flooding or pollution of land and water courses. Where sewerage capacity is identified as insufficient, development will only be permitted if it is demonstrated that improvements will be completed prior to occupation of the development.

Water Quality

All development proposals should have regard to the Water Cycle Study and:

  • seek to improve water quality;
  • not cause deterioration in the quality of a water course or groundwater;
  • not lead to adverse impacts on the natural functioning of the watercourse, including quantity, flow, river continuity, groundwater connectivity, or biodiversity impacts;
  • where development is likely to have an impact, proposals must set out how impacts will be mitigated.

For more information please see the Local Plan