Labour is challenging the Conservatives to do much more to
ensure that developers do not build inappropriate housing in
areas at high risk of flooding.
Cuts to council planning departments, and
weaker planning rules and oversight, have
increased the risks of more homes being affected like those in
the North and Midlands in recent days. Labour is challenging the
government to:
· Fund
council planning departments properly and toughen up the rules to
stop developers building inappropriate housing in high-risk areas
such as flood plains.
· Instruct
the Environment Agency to take a more robust approach to halting
planned development where there is serious risk of
flooding.
· Produce
a new national design guide for building housing in areas at risk
of flooding, and work with house builders and councils to ensure
it is implemented.
, Labour’s Shadow Secretary
of State for Housing, said:
“Boris Johnson has been far too slow to help people in the
North and the Midlands hit by floods.
“More must be done to help those directly affected by these
floods, but the Conservative government should also act to
ensure the homes we are building now do not fall victim to
flooding in the future.
“The Tories have cut 60p in every £1 from council budgets.
Labour will fund councils properly so they have more capacity to
prevent inappropriate development on flood plains, and strengthen
the rules to protect homes from flooding.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
1. Tory cuts to local government have meant that
planning departments are have little time to scrutinise and
consider applications.
The LGA has found that between 2010 and 2020, councils will
have lost 60p out of every £1 they had from central government to
run local services.
LGA, 2 July 2019, https://www.local.gov.uk/about/news/one-three-councils-fear-funding-legal-duties-will-run-out-within-three-years
2. An IFS report out this week, showed the stark
effect of Tory austerity on planning departments.
“Councils’ spending is increasingly focused on social
care services – now 57% of all service budgets. This
reflects the fact that councils have cut what they spend
themselves on housing, transport, planning, and cultural and
leisure services by 40% or more per person in order to limit cuts
to social care services.”
IFS, 13 November 2019, https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14563
3. The Tory Government has failed to actively engage
in the planning process and preferred a hands off approach which
has led to the building on flood plains.
The Government National Planning Policy Framework and
Planning Practice Guidance on Flood Risk and Costal Change are
the Government’s principal documents giving guidance to councils
on flooding.
It does not mandate councils to not build on flood plains
it just requests it.
Planning and flood risk, House of Commons
Library, https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7517#fullreport
Labour
will therefore fund our council
and council planning departments properly and toughen up the
National Planning Policy Framework and accompanying guidance to
stop developers building inappropriate housing in high-risk areas
such as flood plains
4. Research by Greenpeace shows that that the
Environment Agency is left powerless to stop the building in
areas affected by flooding.
“Figures obtained from the EA through a Freedom of
Information request suggest the body may not be able to protect
new developments from flooding.
“When a developer wants to build on a floodplain, the local
authority will send the application to the EA for it to examine.
The EA will then send the council a note, which could refuse the
application or accept it, but with conditions.
“The council has no obligation to go along with this
recommendation and doesn’t even have to tell the EA what it
decided.”
Greenpeace, 15th November
2019, https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/11/15/flooding-uk-boris-johnson-sheffield-yorkshire/
Labour will instruct the
Environment Agency to take a more robust approach to halting
planned development where there is serious risk of
flooding
5. A recent report by the Committee on Climate Change
entitled ‘UK housing: Fit for the future?’ said bluntly
‘homes are not fit for the future’:
“UK homes are not fit for the future. Greenhouse gas
emission reductions from UK housing have stalled, and efforts to
adapt the housing stock for higher temperatures, flooding and
water scarcity are falling far behind the increase in risk from
the changing climate.”
Labour will produce a
new national design guide for building housing in areas at risk
of flooding, and work with house builders and councils to ensure
it is implemented. This include ensuring features such as:
sustainable drainage systems, green roofs, retention ponds,
habitable rooms that are above the likely flood level, and using
building materials that can cope with sustained contact with
floodwater.
