Flooding: Fourth Report of Session 2019–21

This report from the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee provides an overview of the risks of flooding on homes and businesses in the UK. Over 5.2 million homes and businesses in England are currently at risk from flooding, according to the Environment Agency, and more will become threatened in the future. The Climate Change Committee has listed flooding and coastal change as one of the greatest climate change risks for the UK, both now and in the future. The increasing frequency of severe weather, and its impact on people and communities, was demonstrated in the flooding that occurred over the autumn and winter of both 2019–20 and 2020–21. In July 2020, the Government published a new Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Policy Statement, which it described as “the most significant ramping up of flood policies for a decade”.

This inquiry looks at several aspects of Government policy on flood risk management and the response to increasingly frequent severe flood events. The key findings are as follows:

• The Government should provide greater certainty about its long-term objective for flood resilience and how it aligns to climate change.
• The Government has committed to doubling capital investment in flood risk management, but it is critical that this not wasted by failing to maintain existing defences.
• There is an absence of support for the long-term recovery of communities in the aftermath of a flood.
• The Government must provide leadership to local authorities facing potentially significant increases in future flood risk due to the changing climate.
• The current approach to promoting sustainable drainage systems, coupled with the persistence of the automatic right to connect surface water drainage to the public sewer, is not working.
• The Government needs to explain how it will ensure a catchment-based approach to incentivising natural flood management.
• Meaningful engagement with local communities on decisions about flood risk brings practical benefits.