'Will compensation be paid if homes built on flood plain are inundated?': The answer is NO

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

People who move onto a new 470-home estate set to be built on a flood plain in Leigh will NOT be compensated if their homes are inundated with water, a planning committee meeting has been told.

The application to build the homes on 50 acres of land off Firs Lane and Plank Lane, next to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, had already been approved when Wigan’s planning committee met yesterday (Tuesday, February 11).

But when developer Taylor Wimpey UK Ltd submitted variations to the previously approved plan, mainly concerning the number of bedrooms for each house, concerns about the risk of flooding to the site were raised by Coun Stuart Gerrard.

Coun Gerrard said part of the site sits in a level three flood zone, meaning it is at high risk of flooding - and another part is in a level two which is at ‘medium risk’. “It particularly concerns me that we are [allowing] building to take place, but not putting in place adequate measures to mitigate flooding,” he said. “Have these factors been taken into consideration?” Members of the committee were told that the issue of whether the homes should be built was not under discussion as the decision had already been made.