Help prevent local flooding, improve the local environment and increase the value of your house Help prevent local flooding, improve the local environment and increase the value of your house: that cant be a bad deal can it! With the recent flash floods in London and the warnings from continental Europe of more to come, I thought now was a good time to return to my theme about the damage done by concreted gardens. In a recent report, the Royal Horticultural Society warned that paving over our front gardens has a surprising impact on the wider environment. Hard-surfacing gardens can also cause flooding and increase local temperatures?