Call-outs are up — and changing in character
Blocked-drain call-outs have continued to climb year on year. The increase is partly demographic (more households, more ageing pipe infrastructure) but the composition of call-outs is also shifting significantly.
Fatberg-related blockages — where fats, oils and grease have solidified into a mass that traps non-flushable wipes and other debris — now account for a growing share of kitchen-drain blockages. Despite years of public education campaigns by water companies, wet-wipe flushing remains widespread. Furthermore, the fundamental problem is that pipes designed for the 1970s population density are now handling multiple times that flow.
Root ingress is the second fastest-growing category. The UK’s urban tree canopy has expanded significantly in the past decade (a welcome development for urban cooling), but more street trees mean more root systems seeking moisture in the drain runs beneath. As a result, clay-pipe systems in Victorian and Edwardian terraces are particularly vulnerable and increasingly require CCTV inspection before clearance.
Pre-purchase CCTV surveys: demand at a record high
Estate agents and conveyancers have increasingly recommended — or required — a CCTV drain survey before exchange of contracts, and demand for pre-purchase surveys has risen sharply as a result.
Three factors are driving this:
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Insurance costs. Escape of water claims are one of the largest categories of home insurance payout. Insurers are scrutinising drain condition more carefully at renewal, and some are requiring inspection reports for older properties.
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Post-purchase surprises. Buyers have become far more aware of the risk of inheriting severely defective drainage — a collapsed sewer under a property can mean extensive and disruptive structural repairs that no standard homebuyer survey would have caught.
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Conveyancer practice. Standard pre-contract enquiries already include the CON29DW drainage and water search, and conveyancers increasingly treat the physical condition of the drains — not just their ownership — as a risk factor worth investigating on older properties.
A pre-purchase survey is inexpensive by comparison and takes 1–2 hours. Given how much drain repairs can cost when problems go unnoticed, the return on investment is clear.
The aftermath of the autumn 2025 floods
The storms and flood events of late 2025 — which affected large parts of England and Wales — generated a long tail of drainage-related work that continued through winter.
Flood damage to drain infrastructure includes:
- Joint displacement from ground movement and waterlogging
- Silt deposition inside drain runs from surface water intrusion
- Inspection chamber damage where covers were displaced by floodwater
- Soakaway failure — soakaways saturated by prolonged rainfall take months to recover, and some never return to pre-flood capacity
Many of the affected properties are only now completing drain repairs or insurance-funded restoration, and demand for CCTV surveys and pipe-relining in flood-affected areas is likely to stay elevated through mid-2026.
What to expect in the rest of 2026
Summer blockages. July and August typically see a spike in kitchen drain blockages as FOG from barbecue cooking and the absence of regular washing-machine cycles allows build-up to accumulate.
Drain maintenance contract growth. Landlords and letting agencies are accelerating adoption of planned maintenance contracts in response to tightening HMO licensing conditions in several local authority areas.
CIPP relining as the standard repair. Cured-in-place pipe lining has become the default repair method for structurally compromised drain sections, replacing open-cut excavation in the majority of cases. Modern liners have a 50-year design life, are jointless, and can be installed through existing manholes without any digging.
