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Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

Dr Nina Seega, Director, Centre for Sustainable Finance, CISL, said:

“As the frequency and severity of many climate-related catastrophes continue to grow, so do economic losses. Implementation of stronger planning regulations and better collaboration across the market is required to avoid these losses hitting the most vulnerable sectors of society.”

Nick Pyatt, Director, Climate Sense Limited, said:

“Housing development is progressing quickly. Today’s developments will be homes for 100 years or more. Over the lives of those homes, climate risk will increase. This report highlights that the ability of Planners to provide future generations with homes safe from flooding is limited to whether the developer decides it wants to, not whether the Planner says they should. This is particularly the case for surface water flooding. The research also shows that whilst there is some outstanding practice by some developers, protecting homes from future flood risk and climate change is not the priority of all developers.”

John Ward, Managing Director, Pengwern Associates, said:

“Surface water flooding often receives less attention than other forms of flooding. However, this report shows how significant a problem it is in certain locations and that our current methods of managing and reducing the risk faced by households may be inadequate.”


Read Planning decisions, adaptive capacity and insurability: Findings from a case study of flooding in Somerset, UK