Pitt report

After the floods in 2007, there has been a lot of interest and media attention around flooding. The final Pitt report was published in 2008 and it raised many questions and concerns around flooding and flood management and general preparedness to flooding,

The report gave Local authorities and other agencies a number of recommendations to address and a number of interim conclusions to consider.

With climate change also being high on the agenda in recent times, some experts are predicting that the weather in the UK is going to become more extreme.

There were 92 recommendations which covered topics such as:

• Recognition that intense flooding incidents are likely to happen in future and we should all be prepared for this.
• Clarity on identifying vulnerable people following a flooding event, this is being included in our Community.
• Encourage individuals to prepare their own flood plans and make their homes more resilient to flooding.
• Government and insurance industry to provide information and assistance to ensure that those living in flood risk areas can obtain affordable insurance.
• Calls on Government to put a national Sandbags policy in place.
• Requirements for Local Resilience Forum to review Community Risk Register to include total loss of local critical infrastructure sites.
• Increase strength of Local Resilience Forum(s) to enable sharing of sensitive customer information from utility operators.
• Effectively using Planning legislation (PPS25) to resist building in high risk flood plains.
• Effective management and increased resources for inland drainage, ditching and other non-main river issues.
• Protecting and maintaining essential services and infrastructure which may be at risk of flooding.
• Streamlining access to recovery funding. 

Pitt review summary is available to download.