---

Flooding (South Ribble)

There are various ways in which we could look to get more funding for front-line work improving the sewers, and the profits made by United Utilities is one such way. The Government need to recognise that as floods and the drainage system problems get worse, reliance on a fixed level of funding to tackle the issue means that we will not be able to keep pace with the increasing problems. I am aware that my hon. Friend has significant flooding problems in his own constituency, not least in the village of Croston, which I know well. The difficulties with sewers, as I mentioned, are related to the amount of residential development. Many of the villages have old sewerage systems that could barely cope with the number of properties that existed 20 years ago, yet the planning process has no mechanism to stop the building of new developments unless adequate sewerage facilities are in place. New estates are tagged on to the system, which overloads an already stretched system. When heavy downpours put pressure on the system, sewage in the streets and problems in people's houses are not uncommon in villages such as Banks. We should not have to put up with that. All these issues are linked.