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A new taskforce to turbocharge the development of flood defences and bolster the nation’s resilience to extreme weather convened for the first time on 12 September.
The Floods Resilience Taskforce brings together the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, and Floods Minister, Emma Hardy, with representatives from Defra, MHCLG, Home Office, Cabinet Office, the Environment Agency, the Met Office, Local Resilience Forums, Mayoral Offices, emergency responders and the National Farmers Union, among others.
The expert group discussed how they will speed up and co-ordinate flooding preparation and resilience between central government, local authorities and community responders, and emergency services.
The group will also use their collective experience and knowledge to identify and protect vulnerable areas, including championing the delivery of drainage systems, flood defences and natural flood management schemes in communities.
This comes as the current Met Office outlook suggests autumn is likely to be wetter than usual.
The Taskforce also outlined its plans to take a long-term, strategic approach to the challenges of flooding. This will support better protection for families across the country, as well as underpinning the resilience of the economy to the growing threat of climate change. These challenges include ensuring that funding for national infrastructure remains sustainable into the future.
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed said, “Flooding devastates communities and businesses across the country. For far too long the delivery of flood schemes has been too slow and left communities underwater.
“That is why the new Government is acting now to speed up the building of flood defences and bolster our emergency response.”
Floods Minister Emma Hardy said, “The climate crisis is the greatest global challenge we currently face, and as an eyewitness to extreme flooding myself, I know the devastating impact these events can have on our livelihoods.
“As chair of the Floods Resilience Taskforce, I will work closely with our partners to ensure projects remain on track and not only protect homes but create more green jobs and drive investment in our towns.”
The growing risk of flooding and how it can affect the emergency services was covered in our hugely popular webinar, Preparing for: flooding, and what Storm Henk tells us about the growing risk, which you can watch on demand.