RICS was represented an at all-party group meeting on flood prevention where Baroness Young, Chair of the Environment Agency, and Sir Michael Pitt were on hand to discuss the interim results of the Pitt Review, looking into lessons learnt from the 2007 floods.

During the discussion Sir Michael said, in general, good progress has been made with regards to take-up of his 15 urgent recommendations. It was stressed, though, that the final report which is due to be published in June or July, would be on much firmer terms.

In response to a question from Ed Vaizey MP on housing developments in the South East, Sir Michael said his report would recommend minimizing housing developments in flood-risk areas. He added, however, that the PPS25 is an effective piece of regulation and would ensure proper consideration of planning applications in flood plains.

Baroness Young told attendees that responsibility for flooding from all sources should be given to the Environment Agency, which does not deal with surface water flooding at present.

She stressed the need for greater clarity of responsibility; for critical infrastructure to be climate-change proof; improvements to the resilience of existing housing stock; greater funding of flood defences; a more sophisticated system of mapping flood-risk areas and warning local residents; and for the Environment Agency to be able to access personal data in order to facilitate an early warning system.