Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including planning policies related to flooding risk in the revised National Planning Policy Framework.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is already clear that inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas at highest risk (whether existing or future). Where development is necessary in such areas, the development should be made safe for its lifetime without increasing flood risk elsewhere.

This is supported by the Flood risk and coastal change Planning Practice Guidance which we significantly revised in August 2022.

Furthermore, the recent Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill: reforms to national planning policy consultation, which closed 2 March 2023, signalled that we will keep this important aspect of national planning policy under review to ensure it is sufficiently robust to keep future development safe from floods and to not increase risk elsewhere.