To ask the Minister for Infrastructure, pursuant to AQW 23821/22-27, to detail the differences between the £15 million pilot her Department is planning to undertake and the original proposal that was costed at £30 million.

My Department’s proposal, submitted to the interim Public Sector Transformation Board, was to fund a pilot project to demonstrate how the provision of sustainable urban drainage could transform the way in which rainwater is managed. The scalable proposal was based around the concept of storing between approximately 10,000m3 and 20,000m3 of water within a catchment, through a series of different nature-based drainage interventions aimed at reducing flood risk as well as reducing spills from combined sewer overflows. The £15m allocation will enable approximately 10,000m3 of storage to be provided through the pilot project.