Flood Re welcomes EFRA Committee call for flood-resilience targets

Flood Re welcomes today’s report on flooding published by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee, which calls for clear flood-resilience targets.

The new report highlights a number of essential measures to help tackle flooding, including continuing investment in new and maintenance of existing flood defences, as well as improvements in property flood protection, to enhance the nation’s resilience to flooding.

Flood Re supports these measures, and the need to make a clear statement of ambition to ensure the nation’s resilience to flooding, given the UK will experience continued flood risk well into the next century – even in a net zero world.

Andy Bord, Chief Executive of Flood Re, said:

“We welcome the EFRA Select Committee’s recognition that severe weather events have already become the rule and not the exception in the UK. They are right to highlight the need for long-term funding to maintain existing, as well as new, flood defences.

“Yet while defences are important, they are only part of the solution to the long-term challenges posed by climate change. The Committee’s report highlights the fact that a ‘step change is needed in promoting the uptake of appropriate property flood resilience measures’. We believe our proposals for Flood Performance Certificates can play an important role by providing information to homeowners on flood risk and potential resilience measures. To complement these measures on individual properties, it is vital that the planning system works effectively at a local level to ensure that development does not take place in areas at risk of flooding.

“In the year that COP-26 comes to the UK, the Committee’s report is an important contribution to the ongoing debate of how best to mitigate the impact of flooding – one of the most damaging manifestations of climate change. As the Government has already shown leadership in its commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the UK likewise has an opportunity to promote place-based resilience and support economic growth as a world leader in adaptation with the adoption of appropriate resilience standards.”

Mr Bord gave oral evidence to the Committee on Tuesday 1 September 2020.

Kindly shared by Flood Re