[ Draft Flood and Water Management Bill - Impacts to Central Government and Local Authorities ]

"The drought in South East England in 2004-06 and the nationwide floods of Summer 2007 brought home to us what climate change means. We need to be better prepared in the future for both flood and droughts, and ensure that we manage our water resources sustainably."

Draft Flood and Water Management Bill, April 2009

What does this mean for you and your business?

Our policy team has been working hard over the past few weeks evaluating the proposed changes detailed within the Draft Flood and Water Management Bill.
We have summarised the key points below…

Impacts to Central Government and Local Authorities

• A strategic overview role will be created for the EA for all flood and coastal erosion risk management in England. This includes developing tools and techniques for managing all forms of flood risk – whether by the EA or local authorities.

• While the EA has overall responsibility for overseeing and supervising, the Draft Flood Bill gives county and unitary local authorities local responsibility for local flood risk management (particularly from surface run-off, groundwater and ordinary watercourses) in their area.

• County and unitary local authorities will lead in ensuring the production of Strategic Flood Risk Assessments (SFRAs) covering all forms of flood risk.

• Surface Water Management Plans (SWMPs) will be given a stronger role in coordinating development and investment planning (SWMPs will be flood risk management plans under the EU Floods Directive and will also be a tool more generally for local flood risk management).

• Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) are to be renamed ‘Local Flood Risk Management Boards’ and have additional powers to undertake work on surface water and groundwater at the request of the county or unitary local authority (and on main river, sea flooding and coastal protection at the request of the EA) with the supervision of IDB’s moved from the EA to the local authorities.

• There will be a duty on relevant organisations to cooperate and share information. The EA, as part of their strategic overview role, would review existing data standards and have the power to set and manage standards for the information to be shared, to aid common understanding of the data sets and to facilitate use within databases.

Need to find out more about the Draft Bill or flood risk issues in general? Contact us now for a free consultation on +44(0)1273 704 441 or to obtain your personalised summary review of the Draft Flood and Water Management Bill.