“People will always come first” in the battle to defend the UK against flooding, the Environment Agency’s chief executive has said.
“If we have to choose between people and wildlife, we will always, of course, choose people,” Sir James Bevan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-352133

OR you could put it another way:

Developers building on floodplains will get the money ….

This effectively means that forests, woods, open spaces and other wildlife havens are not important.