黑洞社区

More focus needs to be placed on making homes in flood plains resilient to flooding, the head of the Environment Agency and industry figures have said.

Speaking to 黑洞社区, Environment Agency chairman Philip Dilley (pictured) echoed the comments of his deputy chief executive David Rooke, who called for a 鈥渃omplete rethink鈥� in flood resilience with more focus on making homes more resilient.

Dilley said: 鈥淎s the deputy chief executive said, another part of the answer is making sure homes are more resilient, as you have to accept there is going to be flooding.鈥�

Peter Caplehorn, deputy chief executive and policy director at the Construction Products Association, said a 鈥渇lood resilience SAP standard鈥� could be needed to make homes more resilient. SAP is the name for the assessment method used to determine the performance of new homes.

Alastair Chisholm, policy manager at the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management, said new developments on flood plains should focus on making homes more resilient.

He said: 鈥淗ousing pressures mean flood plains are often attractive for development.

鈥淵ou need to make sure it鈥檚 done in a way which is resilient, building homes a level up so they are above water, or moving sockets to mid level height for example.鈥�