Delegates at the Liberal Democrat party conference have voted to greatly increase spending on flood defences in the UK,  together with inceasing the uptake of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems.

A Liberal Democrat policy motion passed yesterday calls on the Government to "Ensure flood defence spending is kept in line with that needed to protect against climate change impacts". This would mean the Government investing an extra £500 million to make up shortfalls under this Parliament, and billions more in future, following recommendations from the Committee on Climate Change and the Environment Agency.  

Environmental Ngo Friends of the Earth described the move as “an implicit criticism of the huge cuts to flood defence spending made by Chancellor George Osborne since the Coalition took office.”

The Liberal Democrats are calling for real terms investment in flood defences to increase in accordance with Environment Agency recommendations, together with monitoring of the availability and affordability of insurance for houses built after 2009 to make sure that affordable flood insurance remains available to all.

Other areas where they want more Government action include:

• Develop clear guidance for Lead Local Flood Authorities on how to take flooding into account when planning development and extend the legal requirement for ‘betterment’ so developers ensure that the flooding situation downstream of any development leads to an improvement, rather than just the maintenance of, flood protection levels.
• Commission a study into how best to improve building regulations so that building works, within the means of the householder and the insurance company, improve the resilience of a building to flooding events.
• Create a monitoring framework for measuring how effective Local Flood Risk Management Strategies are in the medium and long term and set clear targets by which to measure the effectiveness of the National Flood Strategy.
• Ensure that the uptake in Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems is increased to maximise value for money for the taxpayer.