BRADFORD will benefit from an innovative regional plan to reduce the impact of flooding over the next six years.

The West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme (FLIP) is being launched this week to coincide with National Flood Action Week.

It has also just received £160,000, thanks to a successful bid for local levy funding from the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, which will help to kick start the programme.

The programme is being led by five local Lead Flood Authorities across the region – Bradford Council, Calderdale Council, Kirklees Council, Leeds City Council and Wakefield Council.

It has five themes, which will work at catchment level and across administrative boundaries, and each one is led by one of the local authorities.

They are: • Integrated water management solutions including flooding caused by surface water • Nature based solutions or natural flood management • Property flood resilience - measures installed in homes or business premises to make them less vulnerable to flooding • Helping the community and voluntary sector to be better prepared and recover more quickly • Better systems to give early warning of flooding.

Bradford Council will be leading on property resilience and nature-based solutions and look at how these areas will be supported within the regional programme.

A Programme Board, chaired by Leeds City Council, is now being set up and the West Yorkshire Flood Risk Partnership will provide a strategic role, linking into the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee and Catchment Partnerships.

Councillor Caroline Firth, Deputy Executive Member for Climate Emergency and Bradford Council’s representative on the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, said: “This funding is great for our district and the wider region and help us work together even more closely. Rivers and watercourses don't neatly follow our council boundaries, so this partnership work across catchments is vital for us to battle against the increased risk of flooding due to the changing climate. The changes we plan to make together will help protect our people, homes, businesses and land.”

Professor Joseph Holden, Director of iCASP, said: Professor Joseph Holden, Director of iCASP, said: “We need to predict the future potential for flooding and build resilience by combining many different approaches rather than rely on individual interventions. Our role will be to make sure that the latest scientific evidence is used to test new techniques and to develop innovative solutions that work.

“We will support the design of novel world-leading approaches to improving flood resilience suitable for different types of locations, risks, catchments and communities.”

In England there are over 5 million homes and businesses at risk of flooding. The average cost of flooding to a home is around £30,000.