Flood zones, overheating and why the money can’t see it

Aviva’s chief executive, Amanda Blanc, has told the BBC that around 115,000 new homes are set to be built in flood zones over the next decade. The flood areas are well known. The building continues. In this episode, Charlie Martin speaks with Kelly Harrison, co-founder and director of alpha and director at Whitby Wood, and Sebastian Wood, group managing director of Whitby Wood. Both are engineers. Both argue that the harder question is not only where homes are built, but how they are designed and how that design is valued. Kelly doubts the UK can find enough plots for 1.5 million homes “that are free of flood risk”. She explains why cooling demand deserves as much attention as data centres, and why rushed regulation can miss that “climate change is also a safety issue.” Sebastian describes a well-motivated industry moving faster than its rules. “Legislation takes a long time to happen. Codes take a long time to change.” As a business owner, he is candid about the pressure: “I worry about cash flow.” The conversation turns to alpha, which grew from staff frustration that engineering advice was lost along the way. “Those messages never really get to the money.” alpha now models the minimum a building needed to meet regulations, measures how far a project goes beyond it, and puts a financial value on the difference for long-term investors. Whitby Wood is a certified signatory of the Anti-Greenwash Charter. Listen to the full conversation for a clear view of where flood risk, regulation and investment value meet. #FloodRisk #BuiltEnvironment #ClimateResilience #RealEstateInvestment #StructuralEngineering #ResponsibleBusiness