41 Is the housing demand by UK Government causing homes to be built with higher risk of fl ooding?


INTRODUCTION THE HISTORY OF FLOOD CONTROL


lood control has been around in some form for almost as long as agriculture itself, from the Ancient gyptians planting extra vegetation alongside the ile to retain water, to protective earthworks in edieval ngland, used fi rst to increase available farmland, then to protect existing settlements. ast-forwarding to ngland in 16, predecessor bodies to the nvironment Agency offi cially started collecting detailed infor- mation about  ooding incidents. hen, in 1, a tidal surge saw the loss of around 00 lives along the hames stuary, and the issue was brought front and centre to the agenda of the  overnment as a whole. ince then, Whitehall increased its attention on longer-term  ood solutions, funding the hames arrier in 1, for example, and introducing legislation to limit the impacts of development.


ne of the challenges the overnment has faced in approach-


ing  ood remediation, is the sheer number of possible causes of  ooding. hese include risks from rivers unable to cope with the water draining in from the surrounding land, to tidal surges along the coast, to surface water  ooding from overwhelmed drainage, and groundwater  ooding  where water levels in the ground rise above surface levels. nfortunately, the  is particularly prone to many of these types of  ooding, an island with settlements largely ranged around the watercourses stretching through its borders. being


FLOOD CONTROL TODAY


In ngland, it is estimated that at least one in six properties are at risk of  ooding from rivers or the sea. his means that, statis- tically, your home is more likely to be  ooded than burgled. he overnment has not ignored this issue, and currently spends around 2.6bn on  ood defences in ngland alone. his is argued to be insuffi cient, however, including within the con- struction industry  with 1 of our respondents agreeing that the overnment should commit more money to  ood protection. As the country faces the development demands of a housing crisis and rising population, as well as a lack of available land outside of places deemed at risk of  ooding  especially in the densely populated south  more and more homes are being built in areas at risk. At the same time, our changing climate brings more and more danger.


According to the landmark nvironment Agency report in 200, looding in ngland, at the time of publication there were around 2. million properties in ngland built on  oodplains. he report warned of the dangers of continuing to build in such areas, and implored the overnment to commit further spending. ortunately, this urgency has not passed the industry by. rom our survey, 61 of respondents argued that housing demand is leading to more homes built with a higher risk of  ooding. Despite this, however, a recent report from Insurance revealed that in 2021 alone, more than ,000 homes in ngland had been approved to be built in  ood zones before the end of ovember.


omplicating things further, with a target of 00,000 new homes a year just to keep up with population growth, many


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