United Utilities launches new £9m fund to boost rainwater management

United Utilities has launched a new fund to help local authorities across the region to manage rainwater in a sustainable way. 

The Sustainable Water Fund offers the opportunity for local councils to reduce the amount of rainwater entering the sewer network. 

Rainwater management solutions or nature-based solutions help relieve the pressure on the sewer network and play a significant role in helping to reduce the need for releases from storm overflows during times of heavy rainfall.  

The fund is targeted at local authorities to support schemes within active travel, town regeneration, highways improvements, flood risk management, parks and recreation. 

As part of an initial pilot project, United Utilities plans to invest £9m in these types of schemes and is inviting local authorities to take part. Applications for the pilot are open until June 1 and the full scheme will then launch in September.  

Types of projects that could be funded include: 

• SuDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage Schemes) - Including rainwater harvesting, green roofs, infiltration systems, swales, tree planting, pervious pavements, attenuation storage tanks, detention basins, ponds and wetlands. 
• NFM (Natural Flood Management) - Including peat management, soil and land management, runoff management, runoff storage, catchment woodland, cross slope woodland, leaky barriers, offline storage and river channel restoration. 
• Separation - Disconnection of surface water from combined sewers to ground, waterbody or surface water sewers. 

Tim Armour, Head of Rainwater Management at United Utilities, said: “We want to manage rainwater in a much more sustainable and natural way. Rainwater management interventions can deliver a range of benefits to the environment and society, including driving down spill activations and utilising more blue-green infrastructure compared to building more traditional concrete storage, which helps to increase network resilience to flooding from the impacts of climate change. Rainwater is a great natural resource, and by diverting the flow from our sewer network, we can utilise interventions such as SuDS to help make the most of it.” 

The Sustainable Water Fund builds on the success of United Utilities’ ‘Green Recovery Fund’ which supported 15 local authorities across the region with several projects including: 

Trafford Council: United Utilities helped fund the provision of SuDS components in Altrincham. This involved planting rain gardens, low-maintenance wildlife friendly spaces, which work to capture and store water.  

Blackpool Council: Funding was secured to plant hundreds of trees in residential streets and urban spaces throughout the town. The work included the installation of specialist pits to help the trees survive the urban environment and improve flood prevention.  

For more information and to apply please visit Rainwater Management | United Utilities - Corporate