Flood Risk

Some insurers will refuse to cover homes built in areas the Environment Agency has warned are prone to flooding, the Association of British Insurers claimed last week.

DCLG has carried out an assessment of proposals to remove householders’ permitted development right to pave over their front gardens unless they use porous materials. The consultation paper says around two-thirds of London front gardens are already partly paved over and the highest proportion of paved front gardens is in North East and South West England where more than 75% are paved. It says impermeable hard paving blocks cost £8-17/m² compared to permeable at £15-17/m².

The Environmental Industries Commission has published a report calling for the Government to ensure the uptake of sustainable urban drainage systems in all new developments. SUDS: Overcoming the Barriers says such systems should be required by building regulations in all new developments and planning guidance should set SUDS as a standard requirement. It says the right to connect surface water drainage to public sewers should be repealed and guidance on adopting sewers revised, and that one body should be responsible for all urban flood risk.

DEFRA is consulting on measures to improve surface water drainage to help resolve existing improvements and to prepare for climate change. Following the Pitt Review of last summer’s floods, its Future Water strategy proposes using surface water management plans to improve co-ordination, increased uptake of sustainable urban drainage systems by clarifying responsibilities and reviewing the automatic ability for premises to connect surface water drainage into the public sewer system. Responses are required by 30 April.

Some insurers will refuse to cover homes built in areas the Environment Agency has warned are prone to flooding, the Association of British Insurers claimed last week. “I can’t speak for the whole membership, but many of them are saying that they will refuse to insure them. Insurance will become much more difficult to get,” Stephen Haddrill, ABI director general said.

The Cabinet Office inquiry into last summer’s floods has suggested that householders and business owners should no longer be able to lay impermeable surfaces without planning permission.

The Association of British Insurers has attacked the level of new funding for flood defences outlined in the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).

Developers, the local planning authority and the Environment Agency are all facing the threat of legal action from residents of a West Yorkshire housing estate that was flooded.

Communities minister Baroness Andrews told Liberal Democrat communities.