Planning permission has been granted to build more than 7,000 homes in the areas at the highest risk of flooding in England, a new report has revealed.
Think-tank Localis found that full or conditional planning permission was given to build 7,116 new homes on previously undeveloped floodplain land in the 12 local authorities with the highest percentage of properties at risk of flooding.
There are no laws against granting planning permission for or building homes in areas at high risk of flooding.
In 2022-23, the Environment Agency reported 267 instances of homes granted planning permission against their advice on flood risk.
Localis has urged environment secretary Steve Reed to empower the recently established Flood Resilience Taskforce to review how resilience measures are implemented in the planning system.
The think-tank also called for an urgent uplift in the Environment Agency’s capacity to ensure the maintenance of flood defence assets and to enforce planning regulations.
Clean growth researcher Sandy Forsyth said: ‘As long as new planning consents are being given to homes in flood zones on undeveloped land, people and communities will continue to see compounding risks.
‘The time is now for the rules to change, as government sets out to rejuvenate the planning system and plans for a newly invigorated era of housebuilding, so that the built environment can be resilient to current and future environmental hazards.’
