Roadmap to 2026: making our Flood Management Strategy a reality

Author: Julie Foley, Director of Flood Risk Strategy and National Adaptation, Environment Agency

Flooding can devastate communities causing widespread damage and disruption. The images on the news of flooded homes and water treatment plants, major roads and railway lines underwater have sadly become commonplace. 

The costs to the economy are significant and the mental health impacts on flood victims can last for years. With the increasing threats of climate change this will only get worse. Our thinking needs to change faster than the climate so that we can help communities be resilient to more frequent and severe flooding and storm surges.

'In the face of a changing climate, we simply cannot continue building higher and higher walls based on traditional approaches to protection'

I’ve seen this through many lenses throughout my career at the Environment Agency. As an Area Director I had the privilege of leading operational teams in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire and later in Kent and South London. I saw first-hand the impacts of many flood events. We were responsible for issuing flood warnings and preparing defences for flooding.

We also worked closely with local authorities and local communities to design and develop flood storage areas, flood barriers or natural flood management projects. Sometimes it meant communicating some really tough messages that it’s not always possible to protect everyone from all flooding and coastal erosion at all times. 

When I moved into the national Flood and Coastal Risk Management Directorate, I drew on all my local experiences to help to shape the development of the 2020 national Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Strategy. Following widespread consultation, the result was a Strategy that has sought to transform our national and local approaches to put flood and coastal resilience as well as climate adaptation at its heart.

In the face of a changing climate, we simply cannot continue building higher and higher walls based on traditional approaches to protection. Our communities don’t want that either. We need to find innovative solutions to build climate resilience. Whether that’s flood defences that use low carbon concrete and steel to reduce their climate impact or being better at using the power of nature to drive greater flood resilience.

'The Roadmap sets out the practical actions we will take to achieve the ambitions in the Strategy and tackle the growing threat of flooding from rivers, the sea, and surface water as well as coastal erosion'

Communities want thoughtful place making that avoids inappropriate development in high flood risk areas and increases opportunities for improving the environment. And when flooding happens, they want the insurance sector and local partners to help them build back better so that they can get back in their homes as quickly as possible.

And that’s why we are publishing a Roadmap to 2026 to turn the ambitions of the Strategy into a reality for local partners and local communities across England. The Roadmap sets out the practical actions we will take to achieve the ambitions in the Strategy and tackle the growing threat of flooding from rivers, the sea, and surface water as well as coastal erosion.

It helps to deliver the government’s flood policy statement. And it also delivers a host of wider government priorities, including local nature recovery, carbon reduction and more integrated water management to help with both flood and drought resilience.

And better still, we have designed and will deliver the Roadmap working with many, many partners including other risk management authorities, infrastructure providers, farmers, environmental organisations, local flood groups and the insurance sector. And our Regional Flood and Coastal Committees will also be helping to champion the Strategy’s delivery locally working with local elected members and other partners.

Success lies in working in partnership. I am really proud to have been involved in the development of a Strategy - and now Roadmap - that has mobilised so many partners to enable us all to take responsibility to plan and adapt for the unavoidable impacts of climate change.

Julie Foley, Director of Flood Risk Strategy and National Adaptation, Environment Agency