Calls to ban developers from building on high-risk flood areas

Think tank Localis have urged Michael Gove, the Housing and levelling-up secretary, to ban developers from building homes in high-risk flood areas.

A research report produced by Localis, Plain Dealing - Building for Flood Resilience, found that 200 planning permissions in England were granted in 2021, in the local authority areas at the highest risk of flooding in England. This equates to 5,283 homes planned in flood zone 2. More shocking still is that a further 4,255 houses have received planning permission to built in areas identified as flood zone 3, which have the highest probability of flooding.

It is believed that rising housing demands and increased climate crisis pressures have led to an increase in development on at-risk flood sites.

The report acknowledges that planning plays an important role in mitigating and adapting to climate change, through decision-making on location, scale, mix and character of development. Therefore climate change must be at the core of the planning system otherwise there is the risk that the system fuels rather than tackles the climate crisis.

Localis recommends the government empower communities to manage flood risk in a "resilient way that allows them to pursue their local ecological, economic and social goals". This would mean the creation of flood strategies that are flexible and focus on living with floods rather than just preventing them. They also recommend:

• supporting effective collaboration between public, private and civil society to help reinvigorate and incentivise flood insurance schemes and partnerships;
• making developers liable for the sustainability and insurability of new developments built on floodplains.

Lead clean growth researcher with Localis, Grace Newcombe, said: "We know that climate change is intensifying, flooding is increasing, and housing pressures are rising. Floodplain development necessarily sits at the intersection of these demands but it must not come at the expense of individual and community safety."

"Clearly, defined flood resilience objectives from the national government aligned with whole-system collaboration is needed to protect homes and businesses and stimulate building back better. Failing to do this and continuing to build new homes in floodplain areas without resilience measures is a planned catastrophe."