Flood management and drainage—liabilities and claims

Produced in partnership with Simon Tilling of Pennon Group plc and Michael Barlow of Burges Salmon

Practice notes

Flood management and drainage—liabilities and claims

Produced in partnership with Simon Tilling of Pennon Group plc and Michael Barlow of Burges Salmon

Practice notes

Liability for flood management and drainage

Primary responsibility for flood Defence historically rested with individual landowners. However, it has long been recognised that drainage works are in the wider Public interest. Public authorities therefore have a key role in preventing and managing flooding on behalf of communities.

The starting point for any claim following a flooding event will be the identification of the party or parties with relevant duties to prevent flooding. This may involve potential Liabilities and claims in both the private law and public law spheres. This note covers both topics.

The availability of insurance will also need to be considered at the outset of any flooding event. See Practice Notes: Flood insurance—overview of the market and Flood reinsurance—the Flood Re scheme.

Potential responsible parties include:

•
landowners
•
riparian landowners, and
•
public bodies

Landowners

Landowners may have duties relating to flooding and drainage arising as title matters, under statute and under the common law of nuisance or the rule in Rylands v Fletcher.

Simon Tilling

Environmental Lawyer, Pennon Group plc

• I am an environmental lawyer with a background in both science and law.

• In January 2023 I joined Pennon Group to lead a new in-house environmental law team in support of its water and waste-water businesses.

• At university I studied chemistry and law, and since then I have sought to use both my training in the scientific method and my skills in legal analysis and advocacy to solve complex environmental issues.

• For nearly two decades I was in private practice. As a partner in UK law firm Burges Salmon, and then a partner in Washington D.C. headquartered Steptoe & Johnson, I practiced UK and EU environmental law and regulation for clients across many sectors, working alongside and learning from colleagues who are real experts and masters of environmental law.

• I now use my skills and expertise in England's water sector, working with South West Water, Bristol Water and Bournemouth Water. As a life-long resident of the West of England, I can use my abilities to have a real impact on the environment around me and support dedicated and hard-working colleagues in the water and waste-water sector providing the environmental services on which we all rely.

• I am a trustee of the UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA).

Michael Barlow

Burges Salmon

Michael leads the environment team and the cross-firm water sector team. Michael covers contentious and non-contentious business for a range of clients from a variety of sectors.

He has substantial experience of running cases in criminal courts, tribunals and civil courts to the Supreme Court as well as other methods of dispute resolution including arbitration and mediation.

On the non-contentious side, Michael has particular expertise in energy efficiency, contaminated land and environmental permitting but has advised on a broad range of topics over the last 15 years.

Michael is a former editor of the Environmental Law Review, regularly lectures on environmental law and contributes articles to environmental journals.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Liabilities definition

What does Liabilities mean?

A scheme's liabilities are its future benefit payments and expenses. The scheme is in deficit if the current value of its liabilities is more than the assets, or in surplus if the liabilities are less.

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