A recent report by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has warned local authorities that most of England’s new local plans fail to cut carbon emissions or plan for the scale of severe weather predicted in the coming years.
The report “Planning for the Climate Challenge? Understanding the performance of English Local Plans†looks at the most recently prepared plans in England and found that approximately 70% of them had neither carbon reduction targets nor any way of monitoring their progress with carbon reduction.
The study underpinning the report drew on a sample of 64 local planning authorities and is based on a survey of local authority planners and four more-detailed, area-based case study examinations, and an analysis of local planning documents.
According to the report, the plans do reflect current flood risk, but are generally poor in addressing methods of dealing with future climate impacts such as sea level rise and increased surface water flooding:
“The review of the implementation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS), to which the Government is committed, should focus on providing a clear indication of the current level of SuDS delivery and the split between ‘normal’ SuDS and ‘green’ SuDS.”
“The dynamic nature of flood risk, in particular surface water flooding, was not always reflected across the different stages of plan preparation. The document analysis revealed that local planning policy on flooding complied with the national framework; however, individual officers in the case study areas said that local plans did not fully reflect local understanding of flood risk, especially the risk from surface water.”
In particular, interviewees highlighted that:
‘There are multiple agencies involved in flooding, and it is a challenge that flooding is divided up into fluvial, surface water and drainage, etc.’
According to Dr Hugh Ellis, Interim Chief Executive at the TCPA, there has been a missed opportunity within local plan policy to build in long term adaptation to future climate change impacts for local communities, and to integrate mitigation measures that reduce carbon emissions.
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