Improved planning guidance to help councils consider flood risk will provide better flood protections for new homes, the Government has announced.

The move aims to ensure that developers across England can adapt to the challenges of a changing climate and that new homes are sustainable.

‘We have all seen how flooding is becoming all too frequent. This new guidance will strengthen councils’ ability to require better flood resilience in new developments’, said Levelling Up Secretary Greg Clark.

‘Councils will need to demonstrate that the development will be safe from flooding for its lifetime, will not increase flood risk elsewhere, and where possible will reduce flood risk overall’.

Flood risk and coastal change is an update of various advice and has been putout jointly by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government What to consider when determining whether a proposed development will be safe for its lifetime?

It requires that when assessing the safety implications of flood risk councils should consider, among other things, the structural safety of buildings and the impact of a flood on the essential services provided to or from a development.

‘Residential development can be assumed to have a lifetime of at least 100 years’, it said.