Thousands of homes to be built on high-risk flood plains

Planning permission has been granted for thousands of homes in floodplain areas, a report has found.

A house surrounded by floodwater in Doncaster, one of the at-risk areas of flooding. (PA)
A house surrounded by floodwater in Doncaster, one of the at-risk areas of flooding. (PA)

Planning permission has been granted for more than 7,000 homes in the areas of England which are at the highest risk of flooding.

A new report by the independent think-tank Localis has found that 7,116 new homes have full or conditional approval to be built on previously undeveloped floodplain land in the 12 council areas with the highest proportion of homes at flood risk.

Localis - which “promotes neo-localist ideas” to give places and people "more control over the effects of globalisation” - said housing demand and pressure on local authorities to allow building has led to continued development in floodplain areas.

Of those planned homes, 1,006 were approved in the first half of this year, with the remaining 6,110 gaining planning permission in previous years.

A list of the 12 local authority areas, and the number of new properties in the pipeline, is at the bottom of this page.

The new Labour government, which was elected in July, has set a mandatory requirement of building 370,000 homes a year for the next five years.

Flood water covering a field in Clyst Saint Mary, near Exeter, last year. (PA)
Flood water covering a field in Clyst Saint Mary, near Exeter, last year. (PA)

It has also pledged to "speed up the building of flood defences".

Jonathan Werran, chief executive of Localis, said of the two pledges: “Twin government objectives of delivering up to 370,000 new homes a year and enhancing our resilience against flood risk are not of themselves incompatible missions, but will require tightening up and harmonising of policy levers.

“This need for a renewed urgency for joined-up government is especially the case as our research indicates a continuation of planning permissions being granted for new dwellings in areas of such high flood risk.”

The think tank has called for environment secretary Steve Reed to empower the new flood resilience taskforce with a remit to provide new defences, as well as review existing defence schemes and how resilience measures are implemented in the planning system.

Yahoo News UK has approached the government for comment.

A total of 5.5 million properties in England are at risk from flooding at a time when the country has just experienced its wettest 18 months - up to February - on record following extreme weather including Storms Babet and Ciaran.

A Friends of the Earth policy report also points out: "Over the past 40 years rainfall has been steadily increasing in the UK and it is now more than 7% wetter than it used to be. Sea levels have risen by 1.6cm. These changes don’t seem like much, but averages mask extremes."

Some scientists agree the UK is becoming more prone to flooding. Commenting on flooding in January, Ivan Haigh, a professor in ocean and earth science at the University of Southampton, said: "Unfortunately we need to recognise that flooding is going to become even more frequent and challenging to manage in the UK."

Prof Haigh said this is due to rising sea levels and rainfall driven by climate change, population growth in flood-prone areas, a decline in natural habitats that act as buffers to flooding, and ageing flood defences.

"We are facing a perfect storm, and we need to act now and come together to improve the way we manage the large and growing threat of flooding."

In England, there are 12 council areas where more than one in 10 properties face at least a 1% risk of flooding. This is the benchmark for being deemed high risk.

  1. South Holland: 1,695 properties with planning permission

  2. King’s Lynn and West Norfolk: 1,169

  3. Boston: 777

  4. Exeter: 700

  5. Spelthorne: 647

  6. Fenland: 545

  7. Kingston upon Hull: 441

  8. Doncaster: 431

  9. East Lindsey: 367

  10. Runnymede: 170

  11. Windsor and Maidenhead: 130

  12. North Lincolnshire: 44