By 2025, government should set a long term measurable target to reduce the number of properties likely to be flooded by rivers or the sea. Progress against this target should be tracked using the Environment Agency’s new National Flood Risk Assessment and take account of property level protection.
In setting and delivering the target, government should:

• use as a starting point the Commission’s proposed standard of protection against flooding of an annual likelihood of 0.5 per cent and 0.1 per cent for densely populated areas
• make use of National Flood Risk Assessment 2 and future iterations of the Environment Agency’s Long Term Investment Scenarios to quantify risk and establish targets for cost effective risk reduction
• adopt different standard of protections in local areas, where cost effective and based on discussions with affected communities
• invest in line with the profile set out by the Commission
• maximise the use of nature based and catchment solutions and consider the additional benefits beyond flood mitigation that they bring
• adequately fund wider resilience measures to prepare for and recover from flooding
• require planning authorities to ensure that from 2026 all new development is resilient to flooding from rivers with an annual likelihood of 0.5 per cent for its lifetime and does not increase risk elsewhere.