More than 6m homes in England are at risk of flooding under the latest climate projections, a study by the Environment Agency has found.
This could rise to 8m – or one in four properties – by 2050, the study said.
New modelling shows the number of homes expected to flood has risen much higher than previously expected.
In England, 6.3m properties are in areas at risk of flooding from one or a combination of rivers, the sea and surface water. Of these, 4.6m properties are in areas at risk of flooding from surface water. This is when extreme rainfall causes drainage systems to become overwhelmed, which can cause dangerous flash flooding. This projection is a 43% increase on the Environment Agency’s previous assessment.
There are 2.4 million properties in areas at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea. The modelling found an 88% increase in the number of properties at the highest levels of risk, where an area has a greater than one in 30 chance of flooding in any given year.
Earlier this month, Storm Darragh caused much damage across the UK. Two people died in the deluge and tens of thousands faced many days without power. Trains were disrupted and many homes and businesses flooded as the rainfall caused devastating damage.
Flood protection plans have been cut by 40% in recent years because of a lack of investment in defences, with a quarter of major projects abandoned, and campaigners have called for the government to strengthen its climate plans.
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Alison Dilworth, a Friends of the Earth campaigner, said: “The risk from floods and coastal erosion is growing, yet the government’s plan for dealing with increasingly extreme weather is completely inadequate. Labour agrees that the previous government’s policies ‘have left Britain badly exposed’. Now it needs to fix this by strengthening the national adaptation programme, in consultation with the communities most impacted by the climate crisis.”
