Flood defences cannot protect every home, warns Environment Agency chief

Sir James Bevan says measures in place are working, but the climate crisis brings increased risk

Not every home can be protected from flooding as climate change raises the risk of extreme weather, the head of the Environment Agency has warned.

The agency’s chief executive Sir James Bevan said, that in a few places, the scale of coastal erosion or risk of river or sea flooding will become so great that communities may have to move.

But he said flood defences worked to protect many people, and would continue to be needed, alongside measures to help communities become more resilient to increased flooding.

The Welsh government confirmed that more than 1,000 homes and hundreds of businesses across the country were flooded in the recent storms.

Sir James said there is also a need for “nature based solutions”, such as restoring the bends in rivers, planting trees and creating wetland habitats to slow the flow of water down river and reduce flood risks.

He added it would be unrealistic to ban all development on floodplains, but it should only be done if there is no alternative, and any building that goes ahead should not increase the risk of flooding for other people.

And homes built on floodplains should be resilient to flooding; for example, with garages on the ground floor and people living higher up.

Sir James’s comments were made in a speech at the World Water-Tech Innovation Summit in London on Wednesday. He warned a twin-track approach of defences and resilience to flooding is needed to defuse the “weather bomb”.

The Environment Agency says it is spending £2.6bn on new flood defences that will better protect 300,000 properties by 2021 and more than £1bn on maintaining existing defences in England.

Communities also need help to become more resilient so that, when floods happen, they pose less risk to people, do less damage and life can return to normal more quickly, he said.

Welsh government minister Lesley Griffiths described the damage caused across the region as “absolutely devastating” for those affected and for “Wales as a nation”.

A number of flood warnings remain across the country, including on the River Severn, with Ms Griffiths warning that the “threat of flooding” had not yet passed.

The assembly member for Wrexham told a briefing in Cardiff Bay that the cost of the damage was expected to run into “tens of millions of pounds”, which the Welsh government would not be able to fund.

Local authorities have confirmed that more than 1,000 homes were flooded, with unconfirmed reports of more than 300 businesses also affected, she said.

Sir James said that the aftermath of Storms Ciara and Dennis was “a stark reminder of just how devastating floods are”.

“They kill people, and tragically that happened again last week. They ruin homes and damage lives. And they destroy livelihoods: some small businesses will not survive this latest blow,” he said. “Every single flooded home or lost business is a personal tragedy, and my thoughts today are with all of those affected.”

Scientists warn that climate change is raising the risk of flooding because winter storms will bring more heavy rainfall in a warming world.

Sir James told the conference that flood defences worked: while so far this winter around 4,000 properties have flooded, defences had protected another 85,000 homes from the flooding that they would have otherwise suffered.

“We can never protect every single household against flooding. But we can and do protect most communities most of the time,” he said.

“But, in the face of the climate emergency, we now need a second, parallel, track: making our communities more resilient to flooding so that when it does happen it poses much less risk to people, does much less damage, and life can get back to normal much quicker.

“The best way to defuse the weather bomb is better protection and stronger resilience. We need both.”

With many rivers, much of England is a floodplain and it is where most towns and cities are situated – so, with a growing population, the number of properties in the floodplain is likely to almost double over the next 50 years.

England has received 141 per cent of its average February rainfall already this month, with some areas seeing a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours, and record water levels seen on many rivers.

Sir James said Britain may have to accept the “hard truth” that “in a few places, the scale of coastal erosion and the risk of flooding from rivers or the sea will become so big that it may be better for communities to choose to relocate out of harm’s way”.

Press Association