susdrain SuDS Awards 2026



Entries are now open! The deadline is Friday 27 March 2026 at 17:00. 

Since 2018, the susdrain SuDS Awards have recognised the best sustainable drainage work in the UK. Projects that go beyond compliance to deliver real benefits: flood resilience, biodiversity, and better places to live and work.

If your team has delivered a SuDS project you’re proud of, this is the right place to show it.

Entry is FREE. 

Enter here

Why enter?

Many strong sustainable drainage projects go unrecognised each year. Not because they aren’t good enough, but because the teams who delivered them didn’t think they were worth promoting.

The susdrain SuDS Awards 2026 are designed to change that.

Entering has real professional value beyond the award itself. Your work is assessed by independent experts who understand the technical difficulty involved. That validation matters, whether you’re presenting to stakeholders, justifying budgets, or demonstrating best practice to peers. For many entrants, it also provides a formal opportunity to celebrate the work internally.

In 2024, the Overall Winner was Luton Borough Council for their work at William Austin Junior School, a project that demonstrated what genuinely good SuDS delivery looks like in a constrained, publicly owned site. Other category winners included a 14-year brownfield canal regeneration in west London, a community raingarden, and a catchment-scale flooding programme in Waltham Forest. The range of winning projects reflects the breadth of what these awards recognise.

Who can enter?
Anyone involved with the delivery of a qualifying project can submit an entry, including client organisations, contractors, designers, engineers, ecologists, consultants, and community groups. All are welcome.

Projects must have been completed between March 2024 and March 2026. Projects from across the entirety of the UK are eligible. You may enter the same project in up to two categories, but each requires a separate submission form.

Projects previously submitted for a susdrain SuDS Project Award are not eligible.

Award Categories: 

  1. SuDS in new builds: small and medium housing development 
  1. SuDS in new builds: large-scale housing development 
  1. Regeneration and retrofit: urban small scale (less than one hectare) 
  1. Regeneration and retrofit: urban large scale (more than one hectare) 
  1. Regeneration and retrofit: public buildings 
  1. Private property SuDS (new build or retrofit) 
  1. Industrial and infrastructure assets (new build or retrofit) 
  1. Catchment-based SuDS solutions 
  1. Welsh Project and Schedule 3 Spotlight* 
  1. Overall winner** 

*Welsh Project and Schedule 3 Spotlight – all entries from Wales across categories 1-8 are automatically assessed for this award. No separate entry is required.


**Overall Winner – selected from all category winners. The most significant recognition in UK sustainable drainage.

What judges look for

The judging panel are experienced practitioners. Before you start crafting your submission, download our official Guidance. It sets out exactly how entries are reviewed and what a strong response to each criterion looks like.

In brief, judges assess entries against the following:

Preparatory work – how and why were different SuDS interventions selected? Show that the approach is science-based, site-specific, and grounded in current guidance.

Runoff destination hierarchy – demonstrate alignment with the principle of treating water as close to where it falls.

Overcoming challenges – what obstacles did the project face, and how were they navigated? Lessons learned are welcome.

Stakeholder engagement – was the right expertise brought in at the right stages? Was the local community involved?

Multi-benefits delivered – water storage, biodiversity, amenity, cooling, recreational space. The more demonstrable benefits, the stronger the submission.

Monitoring of impacts – if you have collected data on the scheme’s performance, include it. Evidence strengthens every other criterion.

Long-term maintenance and finance – clear maintenance regimes and plans for long-term funding. Innovative financing models are viewed positively.

Community engagement – how has engagement with the project been encouraged among local communities?

Key dates:

  • Entry deadline: Friday 27 March at 17:00. Completed entry forms (Word document) and high-resolution images should be sent to Robert.mitton@ciria.org.
  • Shortlist announced: May 2026
  • Awards ceremony: Wednesday 24 June, 2026, Newcastle.

How to enter

Enter here

Download the Awards Guide here

Join the conversation! Follow the latest on the awards on LinkedIn using the hashtag #SuDSAwards.

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