Tonight, I hosted the 7th in our series of monthly webinars titled “Bricks and Water: Building Resilience for England’s Homes”. Rob Allen of Policy Connect, gave an interesting presentation outlining out the key recommendations from the 2020 “Bricks and Water” report, the product of an inquiry by the Westminster Sustainable Business Forum, co-chaired by Angela Smith MP and Baroness McIntosh of Pickering.
The report highlights that due to climate change and population growth areas of the UK could run out of water by 2050. One in six properties in England are at risk of flooding, and since 2013, 85,000 new homes have been built within areas of high flood risk.
The report makes a number of key recommendations to address these issues including a tougher simpler planning framework, powers for the Office for Environmental Protection, addressing water issues at the catchment scale, water efficiency and SuDS, incentives for land managers, and development of property resilience.
Rob pointed out that personal water consumption must be urgently cut from the current national average of 143 litres per person per day, through a combination of measures such as changes to building regulations, introduction of a mandatory water label for fixtures and fittings, and increased metering. It should be possible to reduce consumption below 90lpppd by 2050, at little-to-no cost to the householder.
Increased property development exacerbates the risks from flooding and in spite of increased funding for flood defence schemes, it will not be possible to protect all homes. The report recommends the rapid acceleration of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures to help to reduce the costs of restoration following a flood and allow buildings to be re-occupied more quickly. The report also calls for the mandatory use of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) for new developments in England.
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