Today, Policy Connect and the Westminster Sustainable Business Forum launched the third Bricks and Water report in the inquiry series.

The launch was chaired by Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and we heard a special keynote speech from John Curtin, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency. 

Attendees were welcomed to Parliament for a breakfast session to set out the recommendations from the report. We heard from report co-authors Victoria Zeybrandt and Rob Allen, alongside inquiry vice-chair Philip Dunne MP and launch event sponsor Gareth Boyd from Resilico. Chief Executive Claudia Jaksch closed the session by speaking on the next steps for the Westminster Sustainable Business Forum's research and invited attendees to reach out. 

Bricks and Water calls for: 

• Clearer planning guidance and greater resources for Local Planning Authorities to take enforcement action, 

• The Government to enact Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2020, by the end of this year, and  

• Updates to building regulations to include property flood resilience measures, a VAT exemption for products and materials used to make homes more resilience, the mandatory use of discounted insurance premiums, and adoption of the Build Back Better scheme throughout the insurance industry.  

The report was kindly sponsored by Yorkshire Water and Queen Mary University London. The launch event was kindly sponsored by Resilico and WaterTight.