In the lead up to the 2015 General Election, Unda reviews the major political parties’ manifestos with particular focus on how they attend to address the issue of flooding if they come to power.  Pledges concerning their new build programmes over the coming years are also of concern when addressing the issue of flooding.

The Green leader, Natalie Bennett, and former leader Caroline Lucas launched the party’s manifesto at a theatre in Dalston, east London on the 14^th April 2015. 

So how does the Green Party intent to address the issue of flooding?

The key points of the Green Party manifesto relating to flooding include;

• Preventing new building on flood plains
• Build 500,000 new social rental homes
• Take action on empty homes to bring them back into use. There are about 700,000 empty homes….(reducing the need to build more)

Election 2015: Green Party Manifesto pledges on Flooding. Extracts from the Manifesto:

Adapting to climate change – pg. 24
Apart from rebuilding the UK’s energy system, we also need to adapt to the climate change that will take place as the effects of past emissions work their way through the system. In the UK there will be wetter winters and hotter and drier summers. We can expect greater instability, with more episodes of extreme weather, such as the heavy rain and floods of the 2013–14 winter. We need to begin urgently to prepare for this by:

• Providing help for people and communities to prepare for an increasingly variable climate. We would give an extra £1 billion a year to local authorities and the Environment Agency to spend on assisting communities with flood protection and on defending homes and public buildings, such as hospitals, from heat waves.
• Obliging government departments and local authorities to consider climate change and carbon reduction in all their planning over a long time horizon of 50–100 years. Specifically, local authorities should do so in all planning decisions.
• Having the government act as an insurer of last resort where commercial insurance companies are refusing to provide flood cover.
• Preventing new building on flood plains.
• Encouraging storing water in uplands through full river system management – including wetland restoration, natural regeneration, allowing rivers to meander and allowing flooding upstream. Water management needs to become part of the rules for farming subsidies.

Green councillor sets the pace on flooding…

Thanks to a lone Green councillor, who at the time held the balance of power, Islington became the first UK Council to set a minimum amount of ‘permeable’ land to prevent flooding.

Find out more about Flood Risk Assessment.