Planning for Floods: An analysis of planning law and planning practice in flood risk management

Abstract

Flooding has considerable detrimental economic, social and environmental impacts. These impacts are already being felt in England and the rest of the UK and will further increase in the future with the projected increase in flood risk attributable to climate change and socioeconomic growth. It is widely agreed that urgent steps are needed to more effectively manage flood risk, and these may include changes in the regulatory and planning policy frameworks currently applied to shape development in the built environment. Using a combination of doctrinal and empirical research, this thesis examines the role of the town and country planning system in the management of flood risk, focusing on local planning authorities (LPAs) and an examination of the extent to which they can - and do - manage flood risk effectively. The doctrinal research examines the obligations on LPAs to manage flood risk and the legal planning tools they have at their disposal to do so. The empirical research uses four case studies to collate and present quantitative and qualitative data that has been used to interrogate in each case the relevant LPAs’ management of flood risk in practice. Based on the findings of the doctrinal and empirical research, the thesis makes a number of recommendations for reforms to the planning system and the legal planning tools available to LPAs that would enable them to more effectively manage flood risk.