Southern Water and the council sign a deal to keep rainwater out of the sewers

Brighton & Hove City Council has signed a partnership with Southern Water^1,2 to build more sustainable drainage in the city. Southern Water announced the agreements on Monday. The aim is to keep rainwater out of the sewers so they overflow into the sea less often.

The city is one of eight councils across the south to sign up. West Sussex County Council is the other one in Sussex. The rest are Kent, Medway, Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight.

The agreements cover sustainable urban drainage systems, or SuDS: swales, tree pits and raingardens that slow the water down so it soaks into the ground or is held for a while. In heavy rain, surface water running into combined sewers adds to the pressure on the network, and that raises the risk of storm overflows into rivers and the sea.

Southern Water’s announcement doesn’t say which streets in Brighton & Hove will get schemes, how much will be spent here, who signed for the council or when work might start.

The company has just finished Hampshire’s first roadside SuDS, at Westborn Road in Fareham. It paid for the trial, and Hampshire County Council built it on its behalf. Southern Water says it hopes similar projects can now roll out across Sussex and Kent. It is in the first year of a £1.5 billion plan to cut storm overflows.

“These agreements open up an exciting opportunity to work side by side on practical, nature‑based solutions that cut storm overflows, strengthen our climate resilience and make a real difference for local communities,” said Nick Mills, Southern Water’s director for environment and innovation.

The city already has a scheme along these lines. The Wild Park Rainscape takes polluted run-off from the A27 junction with Lewes Road through a planted channel and four basins, so the water is clean by the time it soaks into the chalk below. It also helps with flooding at the park entrance.

The deal was first reported by Brighton and Hove News⁴.