Property Development: Floods

(asked on 19th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of new developments built after 2019 are resilient to flooding.


Answered by
Christopher Pincher Portrait
Christopher Pincher
This question was answered on 24th November 2020

We do not collect this data. The National Planning Policy and guidance on managing flood risk is clear that inappropriate development in areas at current or future risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas at highest risk, towards areas at least risk. Where development is necessary in a flood risk area, and where there are no suitable sites available in areas with a lower risk of flooding, it should be made safe without increasing flood risk elsewhere and be appropriately flood resistant and resilient.

The Environment Agency must be consulted on planning applications in areas at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea, and is a statutory consultee on all planning applications (other than for minor development) which is to be carried out on land in an area within Flood Zones 2 and 3; or in Flood Zone 1 which has critical drainage issues.

My Department publishes figures on the proportion of new residential addresses created in areas of high or medium risk of flooding within National Flood Zone 3, available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/900933/1718_Residential_Address_Change_Statistics_Live_Tables_-_Update.xlsx with the figures are currently available for 2013-14 to 2017-18, in Live Tables P320 and P321.

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