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Floods: Thames Gateway

Volume 470: debated on Tuesday 8 January 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) which areas in the designated Thames Gateway area are classified as flood plains; (175542)

(2) what percentage of land in the Thames Gateway area is flood plain;

(3) how many houses in the Thames Gateway area are expected to be built on a flood plain.

The Thames Gateway regeneration zone runs alongside the Thames and Medway estuaries. A map showing the floodplain has been placed in the Library of the House.

Around 35 per cent. of the Thames Gateway lies within the tidal and fluvial floodplain. The standard of protection afforded by the defences to protect against tidal flooding in the main estuary is higher than anywhere else in the country. There are over 300 kilometres of defences and eight major tidal barriers which include the Thames barrier.

The Thames Gateway delivery plan has proposed 160,000 new homes for the Thames Gateway by 2016 but it does not dictate their exact location.