SuDS Awards 2026: our biggest celebration of UK sustainable drainage yet

On 24 June, the SuDS community gathered at Newcastle University for the largest susdrain SuDS Awards yet. The 2026 awards brought together the people who design, build, champion, and maintain the schemes reshaping how the UK manages water, and offered a welcome chance to step back from the day job and recognise just how much good work is happening across the sector.

Overall Winner 2026: Stockport Interchange 

Delivered by Environmental Protection Groyp (EPG) and United Utilities, StockPort Interchange took the top honour. Chosen from across the year's category winners, it was recognised as the most significant achievement in UK sustainable drainage in 2026.

Across eight categories, this year's entries showed just how far good SuDS practice now reaches: from major infrastructure shemes to community-led projects, and from retrofit in dense urban settings to new development done properly from the start.

If you have ever delivered a SuDS scheme and wondered whether it was worth shouting about, the answer is yes! A great deal of genuinely excellent work goes unrecognised every year, not because it falls short, but because the teams behind it are already busy with the next project. These awards exist to change that. They put independent, expert recognition begind the work, and they give the wider sector real, tested examples of what good looks like. For everyone working to deliver multi-beneficial SuDS, that shared evidence base is crucial: it helps make the case to clients, stakeholders, and decision-makers that this is how surface water should be managed.

Our thanks go to everyone who entered, to the judging panel who gave their time and expertise, Newcastle University for hosting us, and everyone who attended the ceremony. The standard on show was a clear signal that sustainable drainage in the UK is in confident, capable hands.

Explore the 2026 winners and the projects behind them here.