Previous SectionIndexHome Page


Mr. Tim Yeo (South Suffolk): I welcome the Minister's very full statement on this issue, and I am grateful to him for making it available to me just before 3 o'clock. It is an extremely important subject. The Easter floods caused substantial damage: there was a high financial and personal cost to many people--I went to St. Ives on Good Friday and saw the extent of the flooding in that area. I should like to join the Minister in expressing sympathy to the people who were affected by the floods.

Nevertheless, many farmers will note that, although an Agriculture Minister can make a statement in the House about flooding after 11 weeks of a recess during which the problems in farming have worsened so fast that the industry now faces its worst crisis for 60 years, there is still no word from the Government about how they propose to respond to the real threat of agricultural depression.

I welcome the conclusions in the Bye report, and I agree with the Minister that its findings are balanced and firm. I broadly support the steps that he is taking with the Environment Agency, in particular to examine the system of flood forecasting, warning and response. I accept his reasons for not proceeding with the suggestion of holding a public inquiry into the flooding in Northampton. I particularly welcome the co-operation between the Minister and the Environment Agency in considering what lessons can be learned.

I have a small number of specific questions. If the analysis that is undertaken results in an increase in the costs of the agency or the local authorities that are affected, because of the measures required to be taken, do the Government intend to cover those extra costs with additional funding from the centre or will the agency and the local authorities be expected to make savings from the other services that they currently provide?

Does the Minister accept that the risk of flooding can be affected by large-scale new development, including housing development, on green-field sites? Such developments may restrict drainage on areas in the historic flood plains. Will the Government issue, as a matter of urgency, new planning guidance that not only incorporates the promised sequential approach to planning decisions on where new housing should be built, so that brown-field sites are used before green-field sites, but requires more consideration of how any proposed development may affect flood risks in the surrounding area?

Does the Minister agree that a significant part of the difficulties at Easter arose from the speed with which the floods took place? Are any studies planned into that aspect of the problem? Flash flooding was a feature in many areas.

The review makes strong criticisms of the system of warnings. I agree that people are entitled to better warnings of when exceptional conditions may occur than

20 Oct 1998 : Column 1084

were given in some places at Easter. Has the Minister noted the view of the Select Committee on Agriculture that, if warnings are not to be devalued, they must be issued prudently, and only when there is a real risk of flooding?

Does the Minister agree that, although, as the review acknowledges, the conditions at Easter were exceptional, the prospect of climate change means that such exceptional conditions may become more frequent? Surely that not only reinforces the need for the reconsideration of flood preparations that the Minister has put in hand, but makes even more urgent the need for the Government to publish their own, long overdue, climate change strategy.

Does the Minister agree that it is important not to act like King Canute? No amount of words can prevent flooding. The risk cannot be entirely eliminated, as the review states. Does the Minister accept that, on this issue, as, I am afraid, on other issues, Government actions across a range of policy, such as their approval of so many large-scale housing schemes on green-field sites, have made matters worse rather than better? Another example is their extraordinary recent decision to block the construction of more gas-fired power stations, although such power stations are one of the cheapest ways in which to slow down the process of climate change.

Given that the Minister--quite reasonably--expects the Environment Agency to do its best to reduce the risk of a repetition of what happened at Easter, would it not be helpful if the rest of Government policy were co-ordinated to achieve the same aim?

Mr. Morley: I welcome the hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr. Yeo) on the occasion of his first outing as Opposition agriculture spokesman. I am sorry, however, that there has been an attempt to divert attention from the serious issue of the 2,000 and more people who were severely affected by the floods. The normal procedures of the House will give us opportunities to discuss agriculture in an entirely proper way, but today we are concerned with the effect on those people, and the important responses that we as a Government must make to the report.

As I said, we are discussing the costs of changes with the Environment Agency. We accept that there will be costs; it will be the agency's responsibility to meet some of them from its budget, but the Government will have to meet others, and we are prepared to consider the requests, and the commitments, that have been made. If there are implications for local authorities in terms of increased costs, those implications will be considered in the context of their standard spending assessments for flood defence.

The Agriculture Committee report touched on the risk of development on flood plains, and we have made our response to that report available. The issue was flagged up in the Bye report, although that report pointed out that, in recent years, more account had been taken of Environment Agency recommendations.

The question of warning systems, and how they should be applied, certainly needs to be considered. Climate change is being taken into account in future projections for both sea and flood defence. I must tell the hon. Member for South Suffolk that the climate change strategy is not overdue, and that my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment will report on it soon.

20 Oct 1998 : Column 1085

As for the hon. Gentleman's final question, about large-scale housing developments, there has been a great deal of housing development over the past 18 years. All I will say about Government policy is that this Government's target for brown-field rather than green-field development is considerably higher than that of the last Government.

Ms Sally Keeble (Northampton, North): I welcome the report and the statement, and, in particular, my hon. Friend's comments about the disgraceful slurs that we heard from the hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr. Yeo).

Does my hon. Friend seriously think that the general public--especially those in Northampton who suffered so much--will have confidence in the Environment Agency's ability to implement these important recommendations, given that that will call for qualities that, according to the report, the agency does not possess? I refer particularly to co-ordination between agencies.

Does my hon. Friend accept that much of the suffering of people in Northampton was caused by the fact that the last ministerial directive, signed by the hon. Member for Daventry (Mr. Boswell), was not implemented properly? Will my hon. Friend look again, very carefully, at the way in which the recommendations will be implemented, and consider whether there could be an independent mechanism or person, and a proper reporting process, so that everyone can be absolutely sure that the disasters of last Easter are never repeated?

Mr. Morley: My hon. Friend has made some important points.

We are responding by setting the Environment Agency targets that it will have to meet, and whose progress we will monitor. My hon. Friend's suggestion on how we can report on that progress, in a transparent way, is worthy of consideration, and we will give it further thought.

Mr. Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington): I welcome the statement, and congratulate the emergency services on the role that they played in tackling the floods. I also extend my sympathy to the families who were affected.

I am glad that the Government are talking to the Environment Agency about the costs of the improvement programme, but will they make contingency funds available now for the £1 million programme of work in relation to warning systems and flood defences that the agency has already said is necessary, so that the agency does not need to cut other equally important programmes? Will they also consider tighter controls for building on land that may be vulnerable to flooding?

Mr. Morley: I can confirm that we are talking to the Environment Agency about the cost. Its provisional estimate is that the immediate cost is about £1 million, and the Ministry is considering how we can make the necessary allocation.

The issue of guidelines was raised by the Agriculture Committee, and we made a formal response. My colleagues in the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions are also giving thought to the matter.

Mr. Tony Clarke (Northampton, South): The past six months have without doubt seemed much longer to those

20 Oct 1998 : Column 1086

who were affected at Easter, many of whom have still not returned to normality, as my hon. Friend the Minister said. He mentioned the two fatalities in my constituency and the five nationally. It is important to place it on record that the list of fatalities grows longer by the day. For those who have died since Easter, the cause of death may have been given as pneumonia or natural causes, but there is little doubt that the trauma of the event has led to premature death.

Does my hon. Friend agree that his comment about the report being tough hitting does not go far enough for Northampton, and that the word "damning" should be used? The report says that, without doubt, the intensity, severity and depth of the flooding were increased by the failure of the Environment Agency to act on several factors: reservoirs were full; sluice gates were inoperative--last week, I passed to my hon. Friend a picture of floodgates held together with cans of WD40 jammed in their mechanisms; watercourses were blocked; and flood defences were missing, not with small gaps but with gaps which stretched up to 95 m in Northampton alone. Does he agree that the report is damning, and not just tough hitting?

Does my hon. Friend appreciate the anger felt by both Government and Opposition Members who are calling for the resignation of Lord De Ramsey? There is a belief that the buck stops at the top. Is it not, therefore, incredible that, in the six months since the Easter floods, before Members of Parliament called for his resignation, Lord De Ramsey did not make one public comment or offer one word of sympathy or acknowledgment of his responsibility as chair of the Environment Agency?

Will my hon. Friend assure the people of Northampton that he will intervene to ensure that Northampton's flood defences are brought up to scratch as soon as possible, so my constituents can once more sleep safely in their beds?


Next Section

IndexHome Page