Albion Water’s CEO Dr Jerry Bryan was invited to the House of Lords as a guest speaker by the Westminster Sustainable Business Forum to speak at a parliamentary seminar focused on the benefits and feasibility of integrated approaches to water and infrastructure management and Chaired by the Earl of Selborne.
The seminar was focused on seeking to explore how the right design and management can help communities develop sustainable infrastructure, while safeguarding water security, and reducing flood risks posed to communities, inhabitants, and businesses.
The event assessed how the National Planning Policy Framework might be applied to manage land and water in a coordinated and sustainable way, and highlight some of the challenges arising from a failure to deliver a more integrated approach.
The discussion will also refer to Defra’s National Flood Resilience Review and include a review of the recent Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee inquiry report on ‘Future flood prevention’, which called for an overhaul of flood management in England to tackle the rising risk to communities from climate change and make reference to the ‘Water resources long-term planning framework’ published recently by Water UK.
Other speakers included:
Meyrick Gough, Water Strategy Manager, Southern Water
Dr Ana Mijic, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College
Commenting on the event our CEO Dr Jerry Bryan:
This was a valuable opportunity to drive home the message that we can and must ensure that all new housing meets modern and affordable standards of sustainability and resilience in all aspects of water supply, wastewater management and stormwater systems. I am grateful to the Earl of Selbourne and to the WSBF for enabling us to explain some of the ground-breaking success that Albion Water is achieving in this area.