Investing in ‘green infrastructure’ like restoring floodplains or wetlands to bolster flood prevention not only generates more environmental and socio-economic benefits, especially in the long term, but also lowers the amount of financial investment needed to defend against damaging floods. This is the conclusion of a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report, which assesses the […]
Blogs – four “All politicians know – and often quote – the response from Harold Macmillan when asked what a prime minister most feared: ‘Events, dear boy, events‘.” The events of the floods and images of the 2007 changed flood management in UK unlike anything since 1953 and indeed gave that ‘rivers and coastal’ mind set a mighty shake […]
Two-thirds of cities experiencing relative economic decline face above average flood disadvantage according to new research by Sayers and Partners for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The report, Present and future flood vulnerability, risk and disadvantage: A UK assessment highlights how flood risks interact with social vulnerability across the UK to create flood disadvantage, an issue […]
Bob Earll & Bruce Horton: The current challenges facing Defra are without precedent, not least the uncertainty over Brexit and its colossal workload. So the ENDS report suggesting further delays to the 25 year plan ‘framework’ (i.e. no detail) is hardly surprising. Business planning 101 would tell us that at times of massive uncertainty long […]
Updated documentation of the current programme from the Environment Agency Between April 2015 and March 2021, government will invest £2.5 billion to reduce the risks of flooding and coastal erosion. Local authorities, internal drainage boards and the Environment Agency are working together with local communities to develop 1,500 schemes. These schemes will reduce flood risk […]
This week, MPs from two Select Committees, the Environmental Audit Committee and the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee, came together for a joint debate in the House of Commons to hold the Government to account on its management of flood risk. A series of parliamentary inquiries have called for strengthened policies to protect UK […]
ESI’s pioneering new study reveals the potential cost to property from the ‘hidden hazard’ of groundwater flooding in England. National mapping shows significant risk from groundwater as part of overall flood risk. Economic loss due to property damage may average £530m per year, approximately 30% of total monetised flood risk A divided regulatory structure and […]
Climate change threatens ability of insurers to manage risk Extreme weather is driving up uninsured losses and insurers must use investments to fund global warming resilience, says study ClimateWise, a global network of 29 insurance industry organisations which is convened by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, has warned of the urgent need […]