Plain Dealing Revisited: planning for flood resilience
Work in progress
National political context:
In autumn 2021, Localis published a groundbreaking report ‘Plain Dealing – building for flood resilience’. https://localis.org.uk/research/plain-dealing/
The study took for its context the sense that development on flood risk areas sits at the intersection of the housing and climate crises. Plain Dealing reviewed the then current policy landscape for flood resilience, measured the debate around the issue and put forwards policy recommendations for a balanced approach to resilience and resistance when deliberating housing demand.
Plain Dealing generated positive press coverage, a slot in Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’ consumer affairs programme and has become a reference point for journalists seeking to understand and explain the nexus between planning and flood damage.
Case for research:
In the years since Localis undertook the research, there has been constant coverage and citation in the national press of Plain Dealing as a reference point for building in high-risk flood plain areas. This suggests that Plain Dealing should be revisited and updated to reflect changes to planning policy made by primary and secondary legislation.
Localis will revisit this policy terrain over the summer 2024 to deliver a short but detailed, data-driven impact report investigating what progress if any has been made in mitigating flood risk in the years since the original study.
And in the national context of imminent political change, Plain Dealing Revisited will reassess what changes in policy, industry approaches and cross-governmental operations would be necessary from now to the end of the decade to mitigate flooding risk driven by climate change from affecting the built environment in different parts of the country.
Research kindly sponsored by:
