Flood Risk support for boroughs

London Councils is working in partnership with the Environment Agency to support local authorities in meeting their new statutory duties as Lead Local Flood Authorities.

There are several ways we be able to help boroughs, during and after the finalisation of the Drain London project in 2011/12:

Interpretation of new data and maps

Surface water flood risk is being mapped for each of the boroughs and will identify and prioritise areas at flood risk. These maps will be public documents. The publication and communication of them will require very careful management to ensure that they do not raise unwarranted public concern.

Communication

Following publication of the data from the Drain London project, effective communication of the flood risk will be essential. Support will be available to boroughs in devising communication plans in order to effectively and consistently communicate the findings from Drain London’s work.

Building partnerships

There are real opportunities to deliver significant efficiencies and cost savings through building on existing flood risk partnerships, and sharing of resources. The existing partnerships are at different stages across London. Support will be available to help the partnerships take ownership of the information developed as part of Drain London, and in taking forward future work.

Taking a lead on flood risk issues

The new roles and responsibilities for local authorities require the boroughs to take a lead on the management of local flood risk. The work already done as part of Drain London goes some way to meet these requirements and will feed into the development of Local Strategies, which are a requirement under the Flood and Water Management Act. Support will be available to help boroughs to assess where the gaps are between the data produced as part of Drain London and the requirements for Local Strategies. 

Funding

The work already undertaken by Drain London means that the boroughs are ideally placed to move quickly to bid for funding for identified actions. Support will be available to any boroughs wanting to develop funding bids for potential schemes.