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Flooding (Morpeth)

I am very pleased that the right hon. Gentleman has made that point. I discussed that very issue with the president of the National Farmers Union this morning. It is very important that the Environment Agency considers all stakeholders and all those affected as the country wrestles with the problems of rising sea levels and the threat of high levels of ground water and the sort of inundations that we saw that weekend in September. He is absolutely right that if the water moves somewhere else, somebody else is affected—perhaps not their life and limb and their homes, but agricultural businesses are also very important and the impact of flooding on them needs to be taken into account. As a new Minister in this area, I intend to look into that and ensure that it is not discounted as we consider all the effects of flooding. I have described the increased investment, and in recent years our experience of managing flood events has also increased. Last year, we immediately established an independent review of the lessons to be learned from the September 2007 flooding, led by Sir Michael Pitt. Sir Michael's final report was published on 25 June 2008 and includes 92 recommendations. The Government have already welcomed the report and announced initial allocations from the £34.5 million that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has set aside for the next three years to take the recommendations forward. We will say more about our plans later this year, and I hope that a prioritised action plan will be produced—in the autumn, it says on my notes, but it feels as though we are near winter given the weather outside. It will certainly be produced shortly. Over the past year, we have undertaken a vast amount of work to increase preparedness against future flooding, and we have taken on board the recommendations of Sir Michael Pitt's interim report on a diverse range of projects such as the encouragement of better surface water drainage, the exploration of resistance and resilience measures for householders in high-risk areas, the finalising of national guidance on multi-agency flood planning and many more. An important aspect of our work is the production of a floods and water Bill, and a draft is planned for pre-legislative scrutiny, for which it is an excellent candidate. We propose that there will be consultation in 2009. It is our intention that the draft Bill will simplify and streamline the rather complex and perhaps outdated flood and coastal erosion risk management legislation, including on the interrelationship of the roles and responsibilities of, among others, the Environment Agency, local authorities, internal drainage boards, the Department and Ministers. Although we will never be able to eradicate the threat of flooding, I remain confident that the events of September demonstrate the preparedness and professionalism of those charged with responding at national, regional and local level. I am confident that we are much better prepared today for the challenges that we will face in the coming months and years, although for those people whose homes and businesses were affected, we can have nothing but sympathy and a commitment to do more to help. Question put and agreed to. Adjourned accordingly at eighteen minutes past Five o'clock. Correction Official Report, 22 October 2008: Division No. 286, in column 398, in the Ayes insert: ““Soames, Mr. Nicholas””. Division No. 282, in column 430, in the Ayes, insert Murphy, Mr. Jim and delete Mason, John.