London floods: Sadiq Khan warns flooding in capital shows ‘danger of climate change’

‘The serious flash flooding in London over the last two weekends will have caused major concern and anxiety for many Londoners and it shows that the dangers of climate change are now moving closer to home’

Sadiq Khan is holding a meeting to see how flooding can be prevented (PA)

London’s mayor Sadiq Khan said that flooding in parts of the capital shows that “the dangers of climate change are now moving closer to home”.

On Sunday, London saw almost a month’s worth of rainfall descend onto its streets with homes, roads and Tube stations flooding. Meanwhile, a flooded hospital was forced to cancel all surgery and outpatient appointments on Monday.

Mr Khan is on Tuesday set to hold a meeting involving councils, Transport for London, the London Fire Brigade and Environment Agency in an attempt to see how flooding can be prevented and its impact reduced.

The Mayor of London explained that the emergency services and local councils had received hundreds of calls regarding the weather on Sunday afternoon and evening.

He said: “The serious flash flooding in London over the last two weekends will have caused major concern and anxiety for many Londoners and it shows that the dangers of climate change are now moving closer to home.

“Despite having limited powers in the area, it remains a key priority for myself and London’s council leaders that more is done to urgently tackle flooding and the other impacts of climate change.

“This is why I have brought together all of the key partners to see what more can be done, including the water companies who have to address the localised issues with infrastructure that may exacerbate the impact of flooding.”

The area of the country with the most recorded rainfall was St James’s Park in London, where 41.8mm of rain fell. This is close to the average rainfall for July, which in London is 45mm, and means that almost one month’s worth of rain fell on parts of the capital in 24 hours.

Mr Khan went on to add: “I continue to lobby the government to devolve more funding and powers to local leaders to enable us to deal with both flooding and the wider impacts of climate change.

“COP26 this year provides an opportunity for the government to show global leadership and give us the powers and resources we need to take even bolder action on climate change.”

The news comes as the Met Office has forecast yet more rain and thunderstorms in the coming days, with yellow weather warnings and flood alerts currently in place for parts of England until Wednesday morning and Scotland until Thursday.

It said up to 60mm of rain could fall within three hours in some parts of the UK. Meanwhile 10 flood warnings are in place in England, six of which are within the M25.