Housing: Flood Control
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if her Department will take steps to ensure that new build houses will not be placed in (a) coastal areas at risk for rising sea levels and erosion and (b) upstream flood areas that will also be at risk for rising sea levels.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook
National planning policy is clear that development should be directed to areas with the lowest possible flood risk from all sources, including from the sea.
Where development is proposed in areas at risk of the impacts of coastal change, development should not be approved unless it can be demonstrated that it will be safe for its lifetime.
Development proposals would have to pass these robust tests to proceed in such locations.
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