Warning over flood plain 'ghettos'
The government is to press on with plans to build 120,000 homes in the Thames Gateway flood plain despite accepting the increased chance of flooding disasters due to global warming.
But in parallel with proposals for a new 20-year flooding strategy, ministers also pledged today to review planning laws to ensure that more attention is paid to flood risks in decisions about new developments.
The strategy said that new homes on floodplains would have to be sited and designed to ensure that they were "flood resilient".
In a 156-page document, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that if the government provided only the legal minimum over the next 20 years, flood plains could become "ghettos" of unsellable homes, where there would be "more potential for loss of life".
It added: "This would lead to significant areas of declining housing stock and potential social disquiet."
But despite this possible scenario, the paper added that increased housing development along the Thames, outlined in the government's communities plan, would still go ahead.
It said: "It is not appropriate to prevent all new developments in the mapped areas of flood risk. Most of the 120,000 houses proposed for the Thames Gateway will be sited in existing urban areas within flood-risk areas."
But it added: "The government will seek to ensure that where developments take place in flood risk areas the risk is managed."
The paper proposed making it a statutory requirement for regional planning strategies and even individual planning proposals to include a flood risk assessment.
It pointed out that developments in flood plains are still going ahead against the advice of the Environment Agency. It conceded that this practice may continue, even though the homes will be uninsurable if they are built against the advice of the agency.
Announcing the new strategy, the environment minister, Elliot Morley, said: "Climate change means we may well see more and worse flooding in the future. We must factor in and plan for this across the board, working closely with insurance industry and other interested parties, so that the adverse consequence for people and for business are minimised."
The Guardian, 29th July 2004
