High Court: floodplain homes allowed despite failing flood-risk test

The High Court says homes in England and Wales can be built on floodplains even if they fail the sequential test, the rule steering building to lower-risk sites first. It upheld Persimmon Homes' outline permission — initial approval — for 190 homes on flood zone 3a land in Yatton, North Somerset, if wider benefits and lifetime safety outweigh the failure.