Concerns that the prolonged hot and dry spell may have increased the risk of flash floods, come just a year after rain storms saw more than a thousand homes and businesses across 24 boroughs filled with stormwater and sewage.
London Councils Deputy Chair Cllr Darren Rodwell, said that, since last summer, partners across the capital have been working to boost London’s flood
preparedness and resilience.
“Each London borough is a Lead Local Flood Authority
(LLFA), which is responsible for bringing all the relevant partners together to
identify and monitor local flood risks in their local area, which is mainly
surface water flooding in London", he said.
“We recognise that London remains vulnerable to future
flooding events. This is due to the impact of climate change combined with the
loss of permeable green spaces, which is placing ever greater demands on
London’s drainage systems and infrastructure, which was not designed to cope
with such extreme flooding.
“Together with our partners, we have developed our multi-agency
incident planning and response and worked on better communication between
agencies and the public about flood risk.”
Following last summer's floods, Thames Water commissioned an independent panel of experts to better understand the extent and causes of the floods,
to assess how existing drainage systems performed, and to recommend how the
increasing risks of future flooding events may be managed. You can read the final report of the London Flood Review here.
