Environment Agency chief gives warning over flood plains homes
DEVELOPMENT ON flood plains should only happen if “there is no real alternative”, the head of the Environment Agency is warning.
Sir James Bevan is also warning that in a few places, the scale of coastal erosion or risk of river or sea flooding will become so great that communities may have to move.
The agency’s chief executive says it would be unrealistic to ban all development on the flood plain, but if there is no alternative any building that goes ahead should not increase the risk of flooding for other people.
And homes built on the flood plain should be resilient to flooding, for example with garages on the ground floor and people living higher up.
His comments come in a speech at the World Water-Tech
Innovation Summit in central London tomorrow when he will warn that a twin track approach to flooding is needed to defuse the “weather bomb”.
That includes the building and maintenance of strong defences to reduce the risk of communities being flooded.
But in the face of climate change increasing the risk of flooding, communities also need help to become more resilient so that when floods happen, they pose less risk to people, do less damage and life can return to normal more quickly, he is arguing.
The Environment Agency says it is spending £2.6bn on new flood defences that will better protect 300,000 properties by 2021 and more than £1bn on maintaining existing defences in England.
The speech comes as communities in parts of the UK face ongoing flood threats in the wake of storms which have battered the country with high winds and heavy rain.
Scientists warn that climate change is raising the risk of flooding because winter storms will bring more heavy rainfall in a warming world.
Development on flood plains should only happen if “there is no real alternative”, the head of the Environment Agency is warning.
The news comes amid flooding in many parts of the country including Yorkshire.
England has received 141 per cent of its average February rainfall already this month, with some areas seeing a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours, and record water levels seen on many rivers.