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Pitt Report

With permission, I shall make a statement on the Government's response to Sir Michael Pitt's final report on the floods of summer 2007. Last weekend's flooding in the south-west, in which two people sadly died, reminds us of the ever-present risk that we face, and of the importance of Sir Michael's comprehensive and impressive report. In his 92 recommendations published in June, Sir Michael identified a need to clarify who is responsible for what; to ensure that the public have all the information and guidance they need; to work with essential services to assess risk and protect critical infrastructure; to have a clear recovery plan right from the start of any major emergency; and to establish the right legislative framework to tackle flooding. I can tell the House that the Government's action plan being published today supports changes in response to all his recommendations, but before setting out those changes I want to acknowledge the continuing effects of the flooding, as a second Christmas approaches. The fact that most people are now back home, thanks to a great deal of hard work, will be of little comfort to those families who are still out of their homes, or who are living upstairs in them. Our thoughts are with them, and their plight reminds us of the toll that flooding takes not just on people's lives, but on their emotions, and just how difficult it can be to get things going again. That is why, working with local authorities and the insurance industry, we will continue to do all we can to help. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Local Government, to whom I pay tribute for the extraordinary amount of work that he has done to help people affected, announced last month further help for those families. We have taken action in the 18 months since the 2007 floods. The Environment Agency has spent £5 million on repairing defences that were damaged. Forty-nine flood defence schemes have been completed, protecting 37,000 homes, from Selby in Yorkshire to St. Ives in Cornwall and from West Bridgford in Nottingham to Worcester and Hexham, the town whose newly built defences successfully protected it from significant flooding in September this year. Since summer 2007, more than 78,000 more people have registered with the Environment Agency's telephone flood warning system; the total is now 280,000. All local resilience forums have been briefed on critical national infrastructure in their areas, and we have brought forward to 2009-10 £20 million of flood defence spending. That will mean an earlier start on those schemes, which, when completed, will protect more than 27,000 homes from flooding and coastal erosion. In total, our £2.15 billion investment in flood defence over the three years to 2010-11 will protect an additional 145,000 homes across England. The further steps that I am announcing today draw both on the £34.5 million that I set aside to implement Sir Michael's report and on funding from other existing budgets. We are creating a new national flood forecasting centre, bringing together staff from the Environment Agency and the Met Office. That will start operating in April and will improve our ability to respond quickly, by providing better information and more detailed warnings directly to emergency responders. Having previously decided that the Environment Agency will take on a strategic overview for all forms of flooding, I am today announcing that local authorities will beresponsible for ensuring that arrangements are in place to assess and manage local flood risk from all sources, including surface water. In two-tier council areas, that responsibility will rest with county councils, but we will encourage them to work closely with districts, internal drainage boards and others. I am increasing funding to local authorities by £15 million to allow authorities where the risk is greatest to take on that new role straight away. Part of that will be for the development of surface-water management plans. I can announce that the first six local areas that have successfully bid for the funds are Hull, Gloucestershire, Leeds, Warrington, Richmond upon Thames and West Berkshire. In addition, I am establishing a £5 million grant scheme, for which local authorities can bid to help people better protect their homes from the risk of flooding—for example, through fitting flood boards and air-brick covers. That help will be available where it is not possible to provide protection through community-level defences. I am also providing funding to help the Environment Agency improve flood warnings, including moving to an opt-out system for ex-directory numbers. Furthermore, I am putting money into improving our flood rescue capability, so that we can make the best use of the skilled personnel and boats available. The national flood framework will help ensure that all the organisations involved in responding to floods, including those responsible for critical national infrastructure, understand—and are fully prepared for—what they have to do. An outline framework has already been published and the consultation that we are launching will enable us to complete the job. Meanwhile, organisations are already taking action to identify and protect infrastructure. On reservoir safety, we are doubling funding for inundation maps for all the country's larger reservoirs and we are providing support for local resilience forums to prepare reservoir emergency plans. We will be publishing a draft floods and water Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny in spring next year to deal with those of Sir Michael's recommendations, including clearer roles and responsibilities and strengthening reservoir safety, that require primary legislation. On Monday, I informed the House that we intend to transfer to water and sewerage companies private sewers and lateral drains that connect to the public system. That was welcomed by Sir Michael, and it will release many householders from a liability that they often do not know they have until something goes wrong and they face a hefty bill to sort it out. The transfer will take place from April 2011. Finally, we are establishing a Cabinet Committee to oversee work on flooding. Sir Michael will continue to be involved in reviewing progress. The House knows that we can never eliminate the risk of flooding, particularly as climate change takes hold, but we are all determined to learn the lessons from what has happened and to be better prepared in future. All of us—the Government, local authorities, emergency and other services, local communities and individuals—must take flood risk seriously. This report, and the steps that we are taking, will help us to do so and I commend them to the House.