Flood-prone areas to get extra protection

The government has announced extra cash to help protect areas that are potentially at risk from flooding.

Environment secretary Hilary Benn said yesterday that £34.5 million will be taken from the government's overall flood and erosion budget to implement recommendations contained in the Pitt report into last summer's flooding in large parts of England.

This will include major improvements to flood defences in vulnerable areas and will be in conjunction with a £1.8 billion budget to be spent over the next three years enhancing flood defences.

Mr Benn said: "With this year's increased funding the Environment Agency will be improving protection for at least 145,000 homes - 45,000 of which will be the most at-risk households."

The move should mean land which was previously prone to flooding will be less so in the future, which could make some locations more favourable for self build than they would otherwise be.

Last week, the Town and Country Planning Association warned that climate change was already making it necessary for the building of homes to take into account different weather patterns.

It quoted statistics from the Environment Agency which showed that since 1930, December rainfall in the midlands has increased by 38 per cent.


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