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Mr. Loughton: Surely the Parliamentary Secretary cannot dispute that, if the regulations are relaxed, the only possible result is that more land is available for development in the countryside.
Mr. Morley: Absolutely not. I stress that development remains covered by normal planning conditions. Although we shall ask planning committees to take agricultural
grading into account, decisions about whether land will be developed, whatever its grade, will not mean that more land is available for development. Individual cases will go through normal procedures when they are considered by the planning authority, within the guidelines that planning policy guidance provides. It is a sensible approach. Some lower-grade agricultural land can, in some circumstances, have higher biodiversity and environmental benefits than some better-quality land which has been intensively farmed and has low environmental benefits. In some instances, developments on better-quality, intensively farmed land is less damaging than developments on poor-quality land.
Mr. Loughton: I hope that that is the result of what the hon. Gentleman says. However, the fact that he has unofficially made a statement--it seems that it will be an official statement--will have an impact on planning authorities, which can only surmise that more development is acceptable. Opening up land for development sends out a signal that more development is more acceptable now than it was previously.
Mr. Morley: The hon. Gentleman does not seem to understand planning law. There will not be the slightest difference. The planning procedures will continue to apply. There have already been some slight changes to the regulation. The hon. Gentleman will have to wait for the White Paper, which will set out the full details. The current situation has not made the slightest difference to planning applications. There is logic in planning applications being based on individual issues, and there has been no change in that regard. Extra land is not coming on to the market. Much will depend on structure plans and planning authorities, as it does now. Any changes in procedures will not make extra farm land or greenbelt land available for development. I put that on the record because I am sure that there will be further discussion of these matters.
Abstraction licences are a big issue, and agriculture is involved. I have discussed it with many organisations. Ironically, although we have had the wettest autumn since records began, generally speaking there have been problems with long-term water management, which is another big issue. We must think about abstraction in terms of domestic users, industrial users and agricultural users. In due course a draft water Bill will be brought forward. The Environment Agency will be drawing up catchment area management plans by April 2001. We want to make some progress.
I shall talk about floods in some detail. There are costs associated with flood defence and flood management. Another factor, which my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Dr. Turner) touched upon, is changes in farming methods over the years. The Ministry has had a role in that it has provided grants for draining. It has encouraged the move away from grazing to a range of arable crops, and that has had an impact.
My hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish asked about the environmental impact assessment from MAFF, which has been delayed since 1985. To be honest, it has been sat on for many reasons. However, I am glad to say that the assessment, in relation to ploughing up
natural and semi-natural grassland, is going ahead with the support of my right hon. Friend the Minister. The draft proposals will come out in the near future.Other issues are increased run-off and building regulations. We need to think more about such things as water recycling in terms of building regulations and the impact of landscaping and balancing ponds. MAFF takes these issues seriously through its green buildings initiative, as part of the process of greening government with which the Green Ministers deal, and I am the MAFF Green Minister. We do so in relation to our own estates. The Central Science Laboratory, at York, which is a very new building, has a landscaped central pond that not only has enhanced the area, but is part of the water run-off catchment system, preventing that water from going into drains and ditches and adding to some of the problems that we have seen recently.
There have also been questions on today's announcement on buyer's packs for new house buyers. The proposal is, however, more of a legal issue and part of the Government's proposals to try to speed up house transactions. The buyer's pack would contain all the relevant legal documentation, which could be transferred quite quickly.
The packs are being trialled in one area before being used more widely, and could contain information such as whether a house is in a flood risk area. It has been suggested that energy ratings should be included in the packs, and I am sure that that could be considered. However, difficult issues such as how, and by whom, energy ratings are assessed would have to be addressed. Nevertheless, including energy ratings is not a bad idea, and it is certainly worth thinking about. The Environment Agency and the Law Society are in consultation on environmental information, including flood risk, that could be included in the packs.
Hon. Members have also raised the issue of insurance. I have recently had meetings, as have Treasury Ministers, with the Association of British Insurers, and I was asked whether the Government would share risk for properties in flood risk areas. However, we do not want to remove responsibility from insurance companies, which operate as a business and know and ascertain risk. Nevertheless, the Government share risk with insurance companies in that we pay for flood defence and provide great sums for flood and coastal defence, thereby reducing risk and helping insurance companies to calculate premiums and to decide on which risks to take.
I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Kemptown that there are real problems with run-off from fields. A consequence of changes in agriculture, such as the switch to autumn sowing and much better field drainage, is that water can run off fields much more quickly. However, although those changes are an issue in flooding and run-off and need to be considered in investigating particular problems, they are not the only issue. We should not try to blame one particular group.
The Ministry of Agriculture produces soil codes for the agricultural industry that address issues such as run-off and the problems associated with mud slides, and we expect farmers to follow that guidance.
Other issues for the Environment Agency include the design of new houses. Additionally, houses that are subject to frequent flooding can be re-designed to be fairly resistant to flooding. This week, I was in Shrewsbury and
spoke to a resident whose home had been flooded on various occasions. It had been flooded in the recent floods, but the way in which the floors had been relaid, the walls re-plastered and--as mentioned today--the sockets moved up the wall made it look quite undamaged. Although she was drying out the room with a de-humidifier, she was confident that, once that was completed, there would be minimal damage to the room.Such re-design, combined with better flood warning systems, can help many people whose homes are subject to frequent flooding. However, I am not pretending that re-design is the answer for everyone affected by flooding. Unlike most people, the woman to whom I spoke in Shrewsbury had an old house in a vulnerable area that had been flooded frequently.
I join hon. Members who have given great praise to the way in which the Environment Agency reacted to the recent floods. It is fair to say that many agency staff worked around the clock and showed great dedication. Staff from unaffected regions have been moved in to bolster staff in the affected regions. I have been round many of the control centres and talked to Environment Agency staff. Environment Agency staff--with all the other agencies and the local authorities that have all played an excellent role in dealing with the floods--deserve great credit for all that they have done. I am proud to be associated with the Environment Agency in my role as sponsoring Minister for the agency's flood-related operations. It has done a great job.
As the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham quite rightly stated, part of that followed on from the Bye report. The Northampton floods illustrated a range of weaknesses and the Bye report was commissioned to address them. Peter Bye made a series of sensible recommendations which the Government are implementing. One was to upgrade the national flood warning system and in the past two years we have spent a lot of money on that. The success of that programme was demonstrated in the recent floods, where, by and large, warnings were given in plenty of time. The warning systems worked well and clearly there had been a great improvement.
The flood awareness programme was established in response to another recommendation and over the next 10 years we plan to spend £100 million on it. The Environment Agency has been putting leaflets through people's doors in flood risk areas, drawing attention to the fact that the area is at risk and advising on what response to take, and what the warning symbols meant. That was also very helpful. Following the Bye report, we also set new targets for emergency response exercises. Exercises were carried out in some areas during the summer and that also paid off during the recent floods.
We should put the issue into perspective. In the recent floods, 1.8 million homes were at risk and some 6,500 properties were flooded. I am not being complacent about that and it is not much consolation to the unfortunate people whose properties were flooded, but on the scale of risk and the number of properties at risk, the flood defences worked. We should not forget that many people were protected by the investment that had been made in flood defences over many years. I also pay tribute to my Ministry's flood and coastal division which made a technical assessment of the defences and worked very hard.
The Government have provided an extra £51 million for flood defences, on top of the rising spend. This year, we are spending about £400 million from all sources on flood and coast defence. Extra funds are being provided for catchment studies and on upgrading weather radar, to meet the point that was made about more accurate forecasting of rainfall. We have also increased the grant for river flood defences schemes by 20 per cent.
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