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Pitt Report

The single most important step we have taken to deal with the problem that my hon. Friend identifies is PPS25, because it clearly lays the responsibility with local authorities to take full account of flood risk in taking decisions. It gives the Environment Agency a statutory responsibility to be consulted—the agency is, after all, the expert. The experiences of my hon. Friend's constituents, and of the many other constituents who have been talked about today by other Members, reinforce the importance of people getting themselves on to the flood warning system and of the practical change we are making to get more telephone numbers on the system, because if people get the phone call, the text or the e-mail—whichever they have asked for—they might be able to take upstairs the kinds of valuable possessions that have been mentioned, and they will not suffer quite as much as when they have been completely unprepared. We have a responsibility to get on that system; the number is 08459881188. If anyone is not on it, they should get on it, so they can get a warning if flooding threatens.