Flood and Drought Resilience Taskforce: What Is Actually New?

The Flood and Drought Resilience Taskforce is a government advisory group, chaired by Floods and Drought Minister Emma Hardy, which meets for the first time this Wednesday, 14 October. Defra announced it today as a new body. On the evidence published so far, it is the Floods Resilience Taskforce set up in September 2024, renamed and widened to take in drought. It arrives with no new funding and no new powers.

The announcement is pitched as a response to a year in which England went from a wet winter into its third drought in five years, and the timing makes that easy to believe. The documents say otherwise. The terms of reference that govern the existing body rule out a budget, an operational role in a flood and any formal report that ministers would have to answer, and nothing published today replaces them.

Every flood defence figure in the announcement, from £1.4 billion to £10.5 billion, was set out to Parliament on 17 March 2026, seven months before the taskforce was announced.

What was announced?

Defra's press release today says the taskforce brings the minister together with more than 50 organisations, including the Environment Agency, the Met Office, mayoral authorities, fire and rescue services, and the farming, water and insurance industries. Its stated job is to share expertise on risk, preparedness and a longer-term resilience strategy for floods and drought, with communities given a bigger say.

The first meeting will look at preparedness for flooding this winter, which the release says shows the country better prepared than last year, and at early lessons from the drought. Both pressures are real. The release describes the driest July in almost two centuries, and Yorkshire moved into drought status on Friday, leaving only the North East and North West of England outside it.

None of this changes planning policy. A site in a flood zone still needs a flood risk assessment for planning under the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework, and the taskforce has no part in planning decisions.

Claim by claim: what is new?

Most of it is not new. The table sets each claim in the announcement against what had already been published before today, and only one of the nine claims is new in full.

What was the Floods Resilience Taskforce?

The Floods Resilience Taskforce first met on 12 September 2024, launched by the then Environment Secretary with Emma Hardy as its regular chair. Its group page on GOV.UK is still live under that name, and describes a forum for advising Defra ministers on flood risk, preparedness, lessons from past floods and long-term strategy, co-chaired by ministers from the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

It met roughly every quarter:

1. September 2024. First meeting, focused on readiness for the 2024/25 winter.
2. May 2025. Aintree, hosted by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.
3. September 2025. Fourth meeting, which reported three action groups on flood warnings, recovery and insurance.
4. December 2025. Fifth meeting, held in Hull.
5. Early 2026. Manchester, after the winter storms.

The outputs listed after those meetings include the Flood Forecasting Centre's Rapid Flood Guidance service, a 30-day flood outlook, the Environment Agency's new Flood Warning Service and an amended Flood Recovery Framework. Most of those are products of the Environment Agency, the Met Office, the Flood Forecasting Centre and MHCLG, reported to the taskforce rather than made by it. A toolkit on flood warnings for MPs and mayors, sent out in September 2025, is the clearest thing the taskforce produced itself. Defra's own place in this system is set out in the explainer on Defra's role in flood risk management.

Is any of the money new?

No. The minister's quote cites £4.2 billion for existing and new flood defences, and the release repeats the pledge of at least £10.5 billion between 2024 and 2036. Both figures come from a written statement to Parliament on 17 March 2026, which set out £4.2 billion over 2026/27 to 2028/29, £1.4 billion of it in 2026/27 for more than 600 schemes.

The 2024 terms of reference state that the taskforce will not manage a budget, so no flood scheme gains or loses money through it.

So does the claimed return of £8 for every £1. How the overlapping totals of £2.65 billion, £4.2 billion, £7.9 billion and £10.5 billion fit together is untangled in the breakdown of the £7.9 billion flood defence programme, and the delivery gap the National Audit Office found is covered in the review of its flood defence findings.

What powers does the taskforce have?

Advice is the only power on record. The terms of reference for the 2024 taskforce give it the job of advising Defra ministers. They rule out a budget, an operational role in responding to a flood, and a report of recommendations that government would have to answer. They also say it will complement, not replace, existing emergency structures.

No new terms of reference have been published for the renamed body, so whether any of this changes is unknown. Nothing in the announcement suggests it will. Advice cannot set a standard. It cannot change the law either. The Environmental Audit Committee called in October 2025 for national flood resilience standards by 2027, as set out in the summary of its wake-up call report. Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act, which would make sustainable drainage approval mandatory, is still not in force. Both are decisions for ministers and Parliament, not for an advisory group.

How does it relate to the National Drought Group?

The National Drought Group is the operational body for drought in England, chaired by the Environment Agency and meeting weekly since August 2026. The new taskforce sits above it on strategy, and Defra says the two will stay closely linked, with the drought group's evidence feeding into the taskforce's longer-term work on resilience and preparedness.

The drought group's meeting on 16 September 2026 set out the position the taskforce inherits:

• Extent. Almost three-quarters of England was in drought after a dry spring and summer and five heatwaves.
• Recovery. About 120% of typical rainfall is needed over seven months for every area to come out of drought.
• Outlook. There is roughly a one-in-four chance that around half the country is still in drought next spring.
• Hardest hit. Even in the most likely scenario, Devon and Cornwall and East Anglia stay in drought into April 2027.

The drought group brings together water companies, regulators, the Met Office, farmers, the Canal & River Trust, anglers and conservation groups. The taskforce adds ministers, councils, emergency services and insurers. One group runs the response; the other is meant to look further ahead.

Is there a case for one flood and drought forum?

Yes. Flood and drought are increasingly one problem. England received 130% of its typical rainfall between September 2025 and March 2026 and then had the driest July on record, and when rain finally fell on that baked ground it ran straight off, which is why floods happen during droughts. The Environment Agency also points out that floodwater is hard to store for public supply because it arrives fast and carries sediment and nitrates.

Reservoirs, wetlands, farm storage and drainage that captures rain all do a flood job and a drought job at once, and a forum that looks at both can see the trade-offs.

Research on climate whiplash in UK rivers points the same way, with floods intensifying in the north and west and droughts in the south and east. Treating flood and drought in separate rooms makes little sense against that pattern. Acting on it, though, needs money, standards and powers, and all three sit with ministers and Parliament, outside a body that meets four times a year to give advice.

What does it mean for development?

The taskforce changes no planning rule. Flood risk and drainage are still decided through the National Planning Policy Framework and the lead local flood authority. What is tightening is water, through policy already in train.

• Flood risk. Unchanged. The Sequential Test and Exception Test and site-specific flood risk assessments still run under the August 2026 NPPF.
• Surface water. The national standards for sustainable drainage systems put rainwater reuse at the top of the SuDS hierarchy. A surface water drainage strategy that designs reuse in serves both the flood and the drought brief, though tanks rarely earn attenuation credit, as the guide to rainwater harvesting in SuDS design explains.
• Water efficiency. Defra has consulted on tightening Part G from 125 to 105 litres per person per day, with 100 litres in seriously water-stressed areas. The government response is still awaited.
• Water supply. Government says water shortages have stalled development in water-scarce areas. Sussex North showed how a supply constraint can hold up schemes whatever their flood and drainage evidence, as the water neutrality explainer records.
• Reservoirs. Defra has promised simpler rules for on-farm reservoirs, a review of permitted development rights and up to £15 million in grants. A reservoir holding more than 25,000 cubic metres above ground still falls under the Reservoirs Act 1975.

For an applicant the consequence is serious. Drainage, water supply and water efficiency are all tightening at once, so a scheme with a sound flood risk case can still stall, or be refused, on water. The taskforce will not change that. The published membership of the 2024 body also has no seat for housebuilders or the planning profession beyond MHCLG, the Local Government Association, ADEPT and two lead local flood authorities, so development is unlikely to be the taskforce's focus.

At launch: the verdict

At launch, the Flood and Drought Resilience Taskforce is an existing advisory body with a new name, a drought brief and a longer membership list. It brings no new money and no new powers, and its first public claim, that the country is better prepared than last year, comes with no published evidence. Adding drought has a clear rationale. The announcement calls it new. The record shows a continuation.

What would change that assessment is something published: new terms of reference, a membership list, minutes, or a resilience strategy with a date on it.

None of that is out of reach: the 2024 body did set up three action groups and send a flood toolkit to MPs and mayors.

What to watch next

• Wednesday 14 October. The first meeting, and whatever Defra publishes afterwards.
• Membership and terms of reference. Whether the 50-plus members are named and whether the brief or powers change.
• Part G. The response to the water efficiency consultation, which would change how new homes are fitted out.
• The drought. Weekly status updates through the winter, and whether the south is out of drought by spring 2027.

Frequently asked questions

For a site affected by flooding or drainage constraints, the requirements are already set by policy, not by the taskforce: a flood risk assessment for planning under the August 2026 NPPF, and a surface water drainage strategy that meets the national SuDS standards.