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Mr. Cawsey: As floods reached Gowdall, local people tried to offer advice to Environment Agency workers about where best to erect barriers and what might happen as a result. There was some criticism that that advice was turned down. I mentioned that to Sir John Harman at the weekend, and he seemed to want to ensure that local people's knowledge was fed into the process. I hope that the Minister will offer some clarification and guidance on that.
A crucial element in the process will be recovery. A small and extremely pretty village has been devastated by the floods. People want to be assured that it will be rebuilt in a way that restores its natural charm and as quickly as possible. The Government clearly have a role in making aid and assistance available. I shall be interested to hear what the Minister has to say in that regard.
Lessons can be learned from what happened and from the way in which the operation was handled. The local authority is East Riding of Yorkshire unitary council, which has had people dealing with command centres and so on from the moment that the floods began. It must be remembered that most people in the village had to be evacuated, and that they were scattered to addresses in the locality. There was a feeling among them that contact was not maintained properly at that time. As a result, villagers felt that they did not know what was being done for them.
I hope that another flood does not happen but, if it does, I trust that the communication process will be handled much better.I know that the Minister has written to council chief executives and to those Members of Parliament who represent affected areas, and that the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions has recommended that areas that have suffered floods should form a local flood recovery committee. I should be interested to know whether that has been put in hand.
However, I understand that, if such committees are formed and begin to do the work expected of them, they will be required to contribute to a Cabinet sub-committee that my hon. Friend will chair. Will he say what such local committees are likely to get from that Cabinet sub-committee in terms of support and aid to ensure that villages such as Gowdall recover as quickly as possible?
Councils have a difficult job when incidents such as the recent floods happen in their area. They need to have the confidence that the Government will supply the support and assistance that will help them get on with the job in hand.
I said earlier that people were moving back into the village slowly but surely, and that an option in some cases was to use mobile homes. It is possible that, for large mobile homes, difficulties might arise over matters such as planning approvals. I hope that my hon. Friend will reassure me that such matters can be dealt with speedily and efficiently, so that people can be allowed to get on with their lives as quickly as possible.
In addition, I understand that East Riding of Yorkshire unitary council has told people who are unable to live in their flood-damaged homes for as long as 12 months that they will be eligible for a council tax exemption. Again, I hope that my hon. Friend will be able to confirm that, as it will be very helpful for people in Gowdall.
Insurance is a key issue. Most people are insured and are already involved in the process of submitting claims, arranging visits from loss adjusters and trying to get work done in their homes. However, that needs to be done speedily and efficiently. What have the Government done to arrange meetings with representatives of the insurance industry to ensure that claims are dealt with as quickly as possible?
Apart from dealing with current claims, local people have a real concern about the future. Will they find it difficult to obtain policies? Will their premiums be unaffordable? It would be an important reassurance for people in Gowdall to learn that the Government are putting pressure on the insurance industry to ensure that they receive insurance in the future.
Sadly, there are always some people who are uninsured at a time of crisis--Gowdall is no exception; I have spoken to one or two people in the village who are in that predicament. My hon. Friend has visited Gowdall. He has met--as have I--Mr. Hinchcliffe, a good man who has been devastated by the events. I visited the village twice last weekend; on the first occasion, Mr. Hinchcliffe had not yet returned to his home, but on my second visit, we looked around his house together. It was hard not to be moved at the sight of all the damage left in his home--especially as he was uninsured.
I realise that my hon. Friend takes the Government view; they are not a free insurance company and insurable risk is a personal responsibility--but we are in this
situation. Out of a sense of humanity, what help and advice can be offered to people who find themselves with such problems?When my hon. Friend visited Gowdall, he said that the social fund might be able to give interest-free crisis loans to people for part of the costs--for example, for furniture. However, one of the practical difficulties is that the social fund is cash limited over a financial year and that we are already some way through the current financial year. People may find that, when they apply to the Benefits Agency, they are told that they are eligible but that there is no--or little--money left in the fund. It would be reassuring if my hon. Friend could tell us whether additional funds will be allocated to the Benefits Agency, so that people who are in significant need have somewhere to turn to.
Many people feel that the actions of the Environment Agency have played a part, so it is hardly surprising that people want to know whether they have access to compensation schemes through the agency. Not only the village of Gowdall but much of the surrounding farmland was flooded. I spent part of Saturday being taken around the area in a police boat. It was like being on a huge reservoir; it was difficult to remember that, only 10 days previously, one could have walked across fields.
The impact on farmers has obviously been devastating--as everyone is aware, they are having a bad enough time already. We understand that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is willing to consider the use of the set-aside scheme to give money to farms in those areas. That will be welcome and I do not want to be churlish about it, but the loss of crops or livestock significantly outweighs anything that farmers would receive from a set-aside scheme. If media reports are to be believed, my right hon. Friends the Chancellor and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food are discussing that matter. I should welcome any comments that my hon. Friend may be able to make about that.
Farming is not the only business in Gowdall; I have already written to my hon. Friend about a carp fishery in the village. That is the one property on the other side of the railway embankment; inevitably, when the Environment Agency decided to try to build a dam on that embankment, it was absolutely certain that the property on the wrong side would be flooded. That is exactly what happened. It happened very quickly. A warning was given, but it did not allow my constituent time to do something about his fishery stock. He lost tens of thousands of pounds of stock as a result of that action in trying to dam off the embankment. I should be grateful for any comment that the Minister could make on whether businesses that find themselves in such a position may be considered for any help in the future.
We all need to look to the future. Planning is a real issue. One thing that struck me when I spoke to villagers was that many of them who had been in the village for some time felt that, over the years, bad planning decisions had been taken. The planning line in the local plan for Gowdall allows future expansion of buildings only on lower and lower land, when one would think that the logic would be to do the reverse. I hope that the Minister will take back to the Government a message that if we are to have future development in areas such as Gowdall, local authorities really must be given proper guidance, to ensure that we do not allow building to occur that will place future home owners' homes at risk.
People in Gowdall love their village, and they want to stay in it. They want answers to the failings of the defence systems. They want reassurance about new defence systems, access to affordable insurance, and a recovery plan that ensures that the village, which they all rightly adore, is returned to its former pristine condition as soon as possible. Although I have asked about many detailed issues, that is the simple message that villagers want me to give the Minister tonight. I hope that my hon. Friend can respond positively to that genuine desire on the part of local residents.
10.12 pm
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Elliot Morley): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Mr. Cawsey) on securing the debate, and on the way that he has raised the understandable and legitimate concerns of the people of Gowdall, whom he represents.
My hon. Friend and I have been in touch so frequently about Gowdall, because I have ministerial responsibility for these matters, that, following his assiduous pressure, there is almost nothing that I do not know about the village. I know how well he has served his constituents and how much time he has devoted to visiting them, expressing their concerns and speaking to local organisations. I quite understand the concerns of the people that he represents. I shall try to deal with some of the points that he has raised.
I do understand that when people have suffered an event of this kind, and had their home wrecked and many of their possessions destroyed, they feel very upset. There is an understandable tendency to look for someone to blame--to ask who is responsible. This flood was exceptional, and in relation to what happened in Gowdall, there was very little that could have been done to stop it.
I think that some of the comments by residents of Gowdall that have been reported are somewhat unjustified, even given their distress and the stress that they are under. For example, I was very sorry to read a comment in the Daily Mail by a local resident, Mr. Archer, who claimed:
- We feel we have been forgotten by the Government. John Prescott and Tony Blair have not come here and Prince Charles was in Yorkshire the other day because of the floods but he didn't visit us.
I changed my itinerary and visited the people of the village on 11 November along with Professor Roy Ward, the chairman of the Yorkshire regional flood defence committee, and Bryan Utteridge, the head of the Environment Agency's flood defence group. Gowdall also had a visit from Sir John Harman who accompanied my hon. Friend last Sunday to talk to the villagers. Although I appreciate that I am not in the same category as my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, I am the Minister
responsible for flood defences and I do not think that my visit suggests that the Government have ignored the villagers' plight. I received reports on Gowdall that were updated three times a day, and I have followed the situation carefully.Since the floods, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has made it clear that, even though the floods are no longer in the national news--in most places they have receded--he does not want people in flood-hit areas to think that they are being ignored. He certainly does not want the people of Gowdall to think that they are being ignored. As a result, he has set up a Cabinet Committee taskforce to deal with floods and the aftermath of floods. He has asked me, as the Minister responsible for flood defences, to chair the committee.
My hon. Friend asked me about insurance, and I understand that it is an important issue for people who have been flooded out and are worried about whether they will be able to obtain reinsurance or will have to face big premiums. The Cabinet Committee and my colleagues in the Treasury have met the Association of British Insurers to discuss the problem. We stressed to the association that we want insurance companies to provide the speedy professional response that we know that they are capable of providing. We want them to provide the services that people need and that will help them with their problems.
Although premiums and the services of insurance companies are subject to commercial considerations, the association and individual insurance companies assured me that there will be no moves towards preventing people from obtaining insurance or raising premiums by a large amount. People will receive the insurance cover that they need and they will not face huge increases in their premiums.
When I visited Gowdall with my hon. Friend, I met people who had no insurance. One cannot help but feel sympathy for people in that position. However, as my hon. Friend rightly pointed out, the Government are not an insurance company. We do not have the facilities to become one; we do not have assessors; and we cannot make provision for insurance. We cannot offer people compensation if they do not have insurance for insurable risks. However, we have the facility through crisis loans and the social fund to help the people who are most in need--those without assets or funds in the bank to buy the essentials that they require. Appeal funds have also been set up to help people in those circumstances.
I was concerned to hear from my hon. Friend of reports that people, who had inquired about the social fund and crisis loans, had been told that they were cash-limited funds--that is true--and that, because we were coming towards the end of the year, the funds were nearly exhausted. People were told that their applications may not be successful.
I make it clear to my hon. Friend that I conveyed that report to the Cabinet Committee taskforce group and discussed it at the highest level in the Benefits Agency. I have been assured that, if the funds in the areas affected by floods are cash limited, extra resources will be made available. People should have no fear about making an application if they fit the criteria. The money will be made available from central contingency funds.
My hon. Friend said that people are asking why Gowdall was flooded. There is no evidence whatever that Gowdall was sacrificed to try to protect other areas, and I would not expect the Environment Agency to take such action. The country experienced the worst floods since 1947, and Gowdall had floods that were worse than those of 1947. The River Ouse was at its highest level for 400 years. To put it simply, Gowdall is on a flood plain and was therefore in the path of a flood seven miles long, containing 30 million tonnes of water; that is why it flooded.
Some 50 employees of the Environment Agency and the East Riding of Yorkshire unitary council worked night and day, at some risk to themselves, trying to protect Gowdall by sandbagging the defences and shoring up a railway embankment to the west of the village. Sadly, those defences were overwhelmed because of the sheer volume of water. I emphasise that Gowdall was not sacrificed, and an enormous amount of work was done to try to defend it.
My hon. Friend asked me about compensation for farmers whose land is flooded. When I went to Gowdall, I talked to local farmers about the situation, and I sympathise with their case. We have used our national discretion to allow farmers whose land is underwater to put that land into set-aside retrospectively, which means that they will receive area payments. I understand that some farmers, especially potato farmers, will not benefit from such measures. I talked to them, and I know that Ben Gill, the president of the National Farmers Union, has been to see my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Mr. Gill brought with him a dossier, detailing the damage to farmland caused by the floods, and that is being considered.
My hon. Friend mentioned his constituent who is a carp farmer, which is a specialist profession. If there are issues relating to whether his land was flooded because of the actions of the Environment Agency, I will make inquiries and find out whether any compensation is available. I will then contact my hon. Friend about the matter.
Because the washlands on which Gowdall sits had flooded, there were problems even when the river levels went down because Gowdall found itself, sitting on a flood plain, with water trapped between that plain and the river embankment. The Environment Agency brought in, at some cost, three of the world's biggest mobile pumps, to try to drain the water in Gowdall, and it has gone down very slowly. The agency also acted to drain the washlands by breaching the banks to let the water out. It will repair those breaches when the water has drained out. In addition, the internal drainage boards' pumps are working night and day to pump water out of the washlands. My latest information is that yesterday only three homes in Gowdall remained flooded, and I hope that the situation has improved since.
The Environment Agency has been meeting with local residents at 10 o'clock every morning to discuss the situation. It is currently evaluating the defences, and lessons will be learned. In response to my hon. Friend's point about the Rivers Aire and Ouse, I can tell him that there will be a full catchment area review, which the Government will fund through the agency. As my hon. Friend already knows, an extra £51 million has been made available to enhance and uprate flood defences, and the agency will review the flood defences in the Gowdall area to see what needs to be done and whether extra
expenditure is required. Of course, there will have to be inspections and repairs because many of the flood defences held back water for much longer than they were designed to.We must pay tribute to the Environment Agency, the Army, the police, the emergency services and local councils. Their response was fantastic and professional, and they smoothly carried out the emergency plans, which worked very well. They did well to defend many areas and the homes in them that were under considerable risk. It is a tragedy that Gowdall just could not be defended; it was in the path of a gigantic flood working its way towards the North sea.
On my hon. Friend's point about temporary homes and caravans, I understand that the council is considering council tax exemptions, which I shall of course check.
I have spoken to the chief executive of the East Riding of Yorkshire unitary council and, as chairman of the taskforce, have written to every local authority affected by flooding, asking for multi-agency committees to be set up. We want to try to spread best practice. We want to play our part through central Government agencies to work with local authorities to try to ensure that people receive the service that they expect and to which, indeed, they are entitled.
However, I again say to my hon. Friend that many who work for East Riding of Yorkshire unitary council were very disappointed by some of the villagers' comments, which I did not think were representative. The council maintained a 24-hour presence in the Gowdall area from the very beginning. Its workers monitored the progress of the flood, radioing in on its progress and depth. Its workers were among the 50 people who sandbagged the defences to try to save Gowdall.
The council opened up the Snaith bronze control centre and helped to re-house 70 people from Gowdall. It provided a mobile service centre, which is a model to other areas. A converted bus is now parked in Gowdall and staffed 24 hours a day. Incidentally, many council workers have not earned overtime for working such hours. They have worked because of their commitment to public service, and because there was an emergency and they wanted to play their part.
The council started the clean-up, providing skips. Staff helped to move carpets and damaged goods. A team is to visit every house in Gowdall to ask whether people need help or attention. A building controls inspector is on call to advise people on structural damage to their homes. Environmental health inspectors are also on call to advise people. Specialist council insurance assessors are on call
for the people of Gowdall, advising them on what they should be claiming. The council helped to ensure 24-hour policing when the village was flooded, and the police ensured that everyone in Gowdall was accounted for. That issue was raised with me when I visited the village. The council is committed to a clean-up.The support that the council has provided has been exemplary. Indeed, I know that in places such as Stamford Bridge, which has been flooded for the second time in two years, people have been very appreciative of the council's actions on their behalf. Although I understand that people in Gowdall feel concerned and are under some stress, they ought to bear in mind that some of the comments have been very hurtful to people who have showed such commitment to the area and worked so hard to try to ensure that residents have received the support and backing that they need and deserve.
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