Government convenes a floods taskforce

The government has convened a new Floods Resilience Taskforce, which brings together Defra, the Home Office, the Cabinet Office, the Environment Agency, the Met Office, local resilience forums, mayoral offices, emergency responders and the National Farmers Union, among others.

The group, which met for the first time last week and is chaired by water and floods minister Emma Hardy, seeks to:

• Take a long-term, strategic approach to the challenges of flooding, including by ensuring funding for national infrastructure remains sustainable into the future.

• Speed up and co-ordinate flooding preparation and resilience between central government, local authorities, community responders and emergency services.

• Identify and protect vulnerable areas, including through promoting the development of flood defences and championing the delivery of drainage systems and natural flood management schemes in communities.

Over 5m properties in England are at risk from flooding and the country has just experienced the wettest 18 months on record (to February 2024) following extreme weather including Storms Babet and Ciarán. The Met Office outlook also suggests autumn is likely to be wetter than usual.

The next meeting of the Taskforce will take place in early 2025 and is set to discuss longer-term oversight of wider flood resilience strategy and investment, as well as any rapid learning on the response to major flooding.