ICE roundtable with the Environmental Audit Committee on enhancing flood risk management

By 2050, over a third of England’s coastline could be a significant risk of flooding as sea levels continue to rise.

In recent years, storms Babet, Bert and Darragh have brought this threat into sharp focus for communities across England and Wales.

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) launched an inquiry to understand how authorities are tackling flooding events, and what support is needed for households and businesses to strengthen their own resilience.

The EAC has also shown an interest in examining:

• the value of nature-based solutions to mitigate flooding risk;
• whether current flood tracking metrics are effective; and
• what a flood resilience taskforce might prioritise to improve the system.

Alongside a written submission to the inquiry the ICE hosted EAC members for a roundtable discussion with flooding and resilience experts to support the committee’s report drafting. ICE Past President David Balmforth chaired the event.

The key themes from the discussion included:

• Governance across the water management and flood defence system is fragmented.
• Communities know what they need, but engagement isn’t being done early or well enough at a local level. Better communication of the value of non-built solutions and upstream interventions to ease the impacts of climate change will be essential.
• There are opportunities arising from the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and the revised National Planning Policy Framework to be harnessed. These include implementing sustainable urban drainage solutions, making buildings more flood resilient and avoiding flood risk areas.
• Private investment needs stability, which should be supported by greater political consensus on this issue. This isn’t solely about creating a pipeline of investment opportunities, it also must consider how to build revenue streams to attract private capital.