A new report from Public First has urged the Chancellor to commit at least £1.5 Bn annually on flood defences in the spending review, with no current funding commitment from the Labour government on flood defences beyond April 2026.
Image description: A house and powerlines submerged in water. Image by Wes Warren
The cost of proactively addressing flood risks is much less costly than inaction, with the report warning “we have to build in resilience rather than lock in vulnerability”. Nearly 2 million people across the UK are exposed to flooding every year, while a third of England’s critical infrastructure, including roads, railways, energy networks and water systems, is also at risk, jeopardising national security. Economists in the report by Public First assert the physical impact of flood events to property, buildings and transport infrastructure costs £2.4bn annually, however each year of flood events causes a decade-long downward pressure on the economy worth at least £6.1bn.
Water and Floods minister Emma Hardy recently hailed a nature reserve, the North Cave wetlands in East Yorkshire, as a “win-win” in protecting homes from flooding and improving habitats for wildlife. Minister Hardy also visited Eastwood to discuss the Government’s plans to help prevent future flooding, after hundreds of homes were affected during Storm Babet’s heavy rainfall in the town in 2023. One of the victims recalled that while “In the initial stages we were very well supported with help and grants of money. Then everything went quiet.” Minister Hardy assured that the government would be “investing £2.65bn in the next two years to build, upgrade and improve flood defences”. Minister Hardy also promised the Government’s plans to encourage more housebuilding will not result in more flooding.
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill had its second reading in the House of Commons this week, with the Bill set to provide a legislative vehicle for delivery of the Government’s housebuilding programme (1.5 million homes by the end of the Parliament). Introduced by the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, the Bill’s overall objective is to speed up planning decisions to deliver housing growth and accelerate the roll out of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NISPs). Whilst relatively detailed on some areas of environmental stewardship, such as nature recovery, disappointment has been voiced at the Bill’s failure to mention flood risk management. Ellie Chowns MP said that it is “quite extraordinary that in 160 pages there is not a single mention of the words flood or flooding”, and called on a “new chapter of the building regulations specifically on biodiversity”.