One year on from last winter’s floods which devastated the North of England, hundreds of homes are still awaiting repair, while hundreds of farmers in the worst affected areas are still waiting to receive emergency funding to restore agricultural land.

A new report by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is warning that the majority of new local plans in England are failing to cut carbon emissions and to plan for the scale of severe weather predicted over future years.

In an Expert Focus article on Waterbriefing, Daniel Johns, head of adaptation at the Committee on Climate Change explores how natural flood managenment and using land more intelligently will limit flood damage.

In an Expert Focus article for Waterbriefing, Jeremy Jones, Associate Director, Technical Authority for Storm Water Management and Planning, Atkins discusses whether storm water management and planning can provide the answer to preventing flooding in the UK.

New research from the Green Alliance suggests that England’s flood strategy is failing – the think tank is warning that a new approach urgently needed from government to protect communities and stop costs spiralling.