Housebuilding (Floodplains) (Hansard, 11 December 2001)

§ Mr. Sayeed
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what action he has taken to ensure that local planning782W authorities follow Government guidelines regarding housebuilding on floodplains; and if he will make a statement. [13889]

§ Ms Keeble
The Government are continuing to monitor the implementation and effectiveness of the new Planning Policy Guidance Note (PPG) 25 through the high-level targets published by the then Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in November 1999. The reports for 1999–2000 and 2000–01 provide a baseline for the situation before PPG 25 was published. We are also looking with the Environment Agency at monitoring PPG 25 through data on planning applications and land-use change statistics. We are committed to a general review of the guidance three years after publication in the light of emerging experience of its use and of developing information on climate change.
Should there be substantive evidence that the guidance is not being followed, we would consider the introduction of a flooding Direction requiring local planning authorities to refer to the Secretary of State applications they are minded to permit in the face of sustained objections from the Environment Agency.

§ Llew Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assessment he has made of the amount of brownfield land available for development which is located in areas susceptible to flooding. [14255]

§ Ms Keeble
Information on previously developed land in England in areas susceptible to flooding was included in the Supplementary memorandum by the Minister for Housing and Planning to the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee, published in Volume II of their Second Report for Session 2000–01, "Development on, or affecting the floodplain".
Based on sites reported by responding local authorities, the estimated total area of previously developed land suitable for housing in England was at least 22,210Ha, of which 2,960Ha (13 per cent.) were within areas of flood risk identified on the 1999 indicative floodplain maps produced by the Environment Agency.