Flood report points finger at Building Regulations

This is one of the principal findings of an independent review into last summer’s floods carried out by Sir Michael Pitt.

The report, published on 25 June, also recommends that the government establish a cabinet committee to tackle flood risk and give the issue the same level of importance as risks such as terrorism.

Pitt, who examined more than 1,000 written submissions in putting together his 400-page report, was assisted by staff from engineering firms Arup, Halcrow, Jacobs and MWH. The report found that the government must be held to account for improving the country’s flood resilience and made 92 recommendations in all, including the implementation of above-inflation increases for flood resilience measures and the use of flood-resistant materials in public buildings.

Pitt emphasised that the recommendations were not all costly and that four-fifths of them could be put in place using existing budgets. He said: ‘A great deal is about people changing the way they do things. My view is this report is affordable. I‘m not proposing anything here so outlandishly expensive that it should stand in the way of implementation.’