Flood and Drought Taskforce Meets With 6.3m Properties at Risk
A new Flood and Drought Resilience Taskforce holds its first meeting on Wednesday, chaired by the floods and drought minister Emma Hardy and bringing together more than fifty organisations including the Environment Agency, the Met Office, mayoral authorities, fire services and the farming, water and insurance industries. Some 6.3 million English homes and businesses are at risk of flooding.
The framing is deliberate and worth noticing: this is a flood and drought body, on the argument that the two are now intertwined rather than opposite problems. Ms Hardy: “We’re facing extreme weather, with flood and drought intertwined, but the government is taking decisive action… This will put communities and businesses at the heart of our work and will make sure the UK is ready for whatever the weather brings next.” The money behind it is at least £10.5bn committed between 2024 and 2036, of which £4.2bn is for existing and new defences and £1.4bn is being spent in the coming year, with £65m for farmers. The return the government claims is roughly £8 of avoided damage for every £1 spent. The backdrop is a year that delivered both halves of the problem: summer 2026 was the hottest on record and brought the third drought in five years and the driest July in almost two centuries, while last winter brought storms Bram, Goretti, Ingrid and Chandra and left England with 42% more rain than its seasonal average. The practical instruction for households is unglamorous and free: check your flood risk, sign up for alerts and write a flood plan before the weather turns.