We need more collaboration to manage flood risk

This post is by Rebecca Pow, former environment minister and former Conservative MP for Taunton Deane, as part of our essay collection How to get Britain climate ready. 

Having grown up in Somerset and represented Taunton Deane in parliament, I am no stranger to the devastation that flooding can cause. I know the toll it takes on families, businesses and communities. And, as the impacts of climate change intensify, more people across the country are facing that reality year on year. The UK is witnessing more frequent and stronger storms and floods than our housing and infrastructure can cope with. It is estimated 6.3 million homes in England are now at risk of flooding and this number is growing.

Before I was elected to parliament, Somerset suffered from catastrophic flooding in 2013-14. According to an Economic Impact Assessment, those floods cost Somerset up to £147.5 million. Hundreds of homes were affected and several villages, such as Moorland and Muchelney, were cut off due to flooded roads. A range of measures have helped to protect Somerset from floods since then and show what is possible with proper resourcing. Since 2014, more than £40 million has been spent on reducing the risks and Somerset’s 20 Year Flood Action Plan was created.

As environment minister, I was determined to do whatever I could to help prevent the devastating flooding that affects so many towns and villages across the country. I am proud of my legacy which includes implementing the Conservative government’s flood and coastal defence investment programme, securing funding for repeatedly flooded communities and promoting nature-based solutions to prevent flooding. Tackling this problem now will always be cheaper than paying for the damages or introducing interventions as the problem gets worse in the future. Flood prevention is excellent value for money and makes a material difference to those who live in high risk areas. In fact, every £1 spent on flood prevention saves £8 in avoided damages, £3 of which is a direct government saving.

The beneficial relationship between nature-based solutions to flooding and the broader nature recovery agenda is also not properly acknowledged. Nature decline and climate change are inherently linked as negative climate changes are driving species loss. Solutions, such as tree planting and peatland restoration, have tremendous ability to reduce flood risk, as well as increase biodiversity and reduce carbon emissions. Investing in these solutions, alongside built infrastructure can multiply the benefits and give a high return on investment.

As the number of areas at risk rise, insurers have warned that some businesses may become uninsurable, potentially leading to towns being abandoned.

Householders are in a better position because they receive some guaranteed insurance protection through the Flood Re scheme which, via subsidy, keeps premiums down for homes built before 2009 in high risk areas. But this is due to come to an end in 2039 and the risks are only growing. House prices in those places will increasingly fall relative to unexposed properties. These devaluations, coupled with significant rises in insurance premiums – or refusal to insure at all – will effectively shrink the housing supply, driving up house prices in those regions deemed safer. Considering this, housebuilding should be carefully reviewed. Between 2022 and 2024, one in nine homes was built in a flood risk area. If this trend continues, 165,000 of the 1.5 million new homes the government plans to build would be situated in medium or high risk flood zones. While we need to build houses to extend the opportunity of home ownership and provide stable, affordable rented accommodation, we can’t do that by saddling future generations with unliveable homes that damage health and fail to provide financial security. The government, and the planning system, needs to be able to manage floods effectively.

This requires collaboration. Flooding, and climate resilience cannot just sit with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It needs to be a
cross departmental consideration as it affects housing, transport, healthcare, businesses and the wider economy. There are opportunities in the new thinking around water, following the water white paper and the Cunliffe review. They reflect recommendations, which I initiated in the last parliament, to join up the flooding and climate adaptation agendas.

Everybody, not just the government, has a responsibility to manage water effectively. In Somerset, my neighbours and I do what we can to reduce flood risk, by cleaning drains, building rain gardens, using water butts and so on. Local catchment-based approaches to flooding, as implemented in Somerset, should be adopted across the country. This means managing risk by looking at an entire river system, rather than only building defences at the site of a flood.

For approaches such as this to work, partnerships are needed between risk management bodies, including the Environment Agency, local authorities, Highways England and water companies. Communities deserve protection but we have to work together to get there.