Hundreds of new homes in areas with highest flood risk

More than 200 homes in Bath have been created in flood risk areas in recent years.

Between 2015 and 2018, the most recent figures available, eight per cent of the new addresses in Bath and North East Somerset were in National Flood Zone 3.

That is the highest risk category for flooding, reserved for areas where there is at least a one-in-100 chance each year of flooding from rivers, or a one-in-200 chance of flooding from the sea.

It means there were around 236 homes created in the flood zone between 2015 and 2018 – new builds as well as existing buildings that were converted into homes.

It was also up from five per cent of homes created in the area between 2013 and 2015.

Across England, one in 11 new homes created in 2017/18 alone was in Flood Zone 3, according to the figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. That amounts to around 20,887 homes. The proportion of new homes being created in the flood zone was down from 11 per cent in 2016/17, but the trend seems to be upwards, having risen from seven per cent in 2013/14.

Since figures began in 2013/14, there have been around 85,000 homes created in Flood Zone 3.

The Environment Agency defines three different flood zones, according to risk:

Zone 1 is reserved for areas where there is a less than 0.1 per cent chance of flooding in any given year, and development there is largely unrestricted.

Zone 2 is for places with a risk of between 0.1 per cent and one per cent. Developments there need to be risk-assessed if alternative sites cannot be found.

Development is more tightly controlled still in Zone 3.

In Boston, Lincolnshire, 92 per cent of new homes created between 2015 and 2018 were in Flood Zone 3, the highest proportion in England.