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Pitt Report

I echo the words that the hon. Gentleman expressed about the impact on individuals and businesses. When flooding happens, it is devastating. I can tell him that about 1,000 households are either out of their homes or living upstairs, and of those, 118 are living in caravans. The number is coming down by about 100 a week. We make an assessment every two months. I fundamentally disagree with the hon. Gentleman's assessment of what has happened in the past 18 months. Protecting 37,000 homes since summer 2007 cannot, under any measure, be described as ““glacially slow”” progress. As he is pressing for faster progress and given that Her Majesty's Opposition have indicated that from 2010-11 they will not be committed to the Government's spending plans, a lot of people would like to know—he might not be able to say today—what their stance is on flood defence investment, because we are all waiting to hear. Next, there is no uncertainty, because the steps that I have announced today and the action that we have already taken are all about people getting on with the task in hand, without waiting for the floods and water Bill, which we will publish in draft form, as I have indicated. Saying, ““That's what you've got to do,”” to the Environment Agency and, ““This is what you've got to do to deal with the problem of surface water,”” to the six local authorities that will start the mapping in the areas that were affected is not about waiting to change the law to require that action; it is about getting on with the job now. Then we will look at the changes that are needed subsequently. The same applies to the mapping of the risk from reservoirs. We are getting on with the job. We are not waiting, but we will change the law as necessary. As I indicated to the House when I made my statement in the summer, we have made good progress on implementing the urgent recommendations. Incidentally, the latest figures for people out of their homes are from mid-November, so there will have been further progress and a reduction in the numbers since then. The funding that I am making available is from funding that I set aside and which I told the House about in the summer for implementing Pitt's recommendations. As for not adding to the problem, I agree with the hon. Gentleman, which is why the Government have strengthened the planning guidance not once, but twice. PPS25 is absolutely clear about the responsibility on local authorities when they take decisions to grant or not grant planning applications; and, at a practical level, we have already implemented changes to the planning rules on paving and concreting over front gardens.