---

Flood Risk Regulations 2009

My Lords, I begin by declaring my interests as a farmer and grower and as a member of a number of organisations with an agricultural background. I am also a vice-president of the Association of Drainage Authorities. Although the latter may be a particular focus of interest, it should not lead noble Lords to assume that I possess a great depth of knowledge of the subject, although it might account for my interest in raising this matter for debate. The Minister introduced these regulations in a Written Statement on the very day of the Cumbrian floods. Since then, the House’s Merits Committee has drawn our attention to aspects that it considers are particular causes of concern. The LGA has written about the funding of local authorities’ role vis-à-vis these regulations. For this reason, I seek to move the Motion in my name before the House this evening. As I said, these regulations were laid before Parliament on the very occasion of the Cumbrian floods. By further chance, last Friday I had the opportunity to visit Cockermouth and Carlisle on a fact-finding visit, which greatly added to my knowledge of the disaster and its aftermath. I acknowledge the kindness of all the people whom I met and talked to, particularly Messrs Robert Jackson, senior and junior, who farm just outside Cockermouth. To stand on their riverside fields, still strewn with debris and kelter from Cockermouth, just half a mile upstream, was an awe-inspiring experience but also a worrying one. Hay bales and uprooted trees one might have expected to see 10 weeks later, but to see wheelie bins by the dozen, furniture, fridges and other electrical goods scattered across the fields was, to my mind, alarming. More dramatic than that were the acres of meadowland and a drilled field of autumn barley strewn with boulders, some as big as footballs, laid out as if on a beach, and in some cases feet deep. It is hard to see how this grade one land is to be reinstated. It seems to me to be as lost as the 40 metres of the same barley field lost to the river. It caused me particular concern that, although the Rural Development Fund money, up to £6,800, might well be adequate for the costs that some farmers face in clearing up, it was totally inadequate for the task facing Mr Jackson and the dozen or so farmers similarly affected. There was also a confusing lack of direction from the Environment Agency and Natural England about their role. Indeed, I received mixed messages both on the clear-up and future strategy for the Derwent river basin. It was not satisfactory to stand half a mile from a town struggling to re-establish normal life and be given the impression that the Environment Agency had no funds for managing the accumulation of gravel in the river or for river margin protection. It was perhaps even more worrying to find Natural England worried about SSSIs, biodiversity and the habitat of crayfish. That indicated to me that a stronger sense of direction was needed. I am tempted to coin a phrase and say, "We can’t go on like this". I am pleased to say that the leader of the county council, Mr Jim Buchanan, has agreed that it must be a priority to assist in moving litter from sites such as Mr Jackson’s farm. The commission of temporary waste dumps and the waiving of regulations governing movement of waste are fine, but that was of little or no assistance to Mr Jackson given the scale of his task in moving the debris off his land. It is not all negative. The Carlisle flood abatement scheme was recently completed and 600 homes that might otherwise have been flooded remain dry. On being shown the scheme, I observed that it had brought a pleasant cycle path and footpath along the newly flood-walled and protected River Caldew flowing through the town. However, this green vein, attractive though it is, has a downside in that this river, although canalised, is choked with rubble, mud and self-sewn willows and buddleia in the interests of providing natural habitats. I doubt the wisdom of a river management system that allows such a feature in an urban area. It cannot help water movement and we know that fallen trees and debris caused a great deal of havoc in Cockermouth. I may have travelled a little from my Motion, but we should consider the application of these regulations. We could, I suppose, consider that these regulations are part of the Government’s legislative response to the Pitt report and the summer floods of 2007, but that is not strictly the case. We would, however, be right to consider them as ancillary to the Flood and Water Management Bill, which is at present in another place and which we can confidently expect will arrive in your Lordships’ House before too long. Indeed, my first question to the Minister is whether it is right to bring forward a statutory instrument that uses a concept of lead local flood authority and lays out duties for that body before primary legislation has set up the concept. The Flood and Water Management Bill defines "lead local flood authority" in Clause 6(7) on page 4, and defines "risk management authority" in Clause 6(13), also on page 4, as the lead local flood authority. Clause 7 states: ""The Environment Agency must develop, maintain, apply and monitor a strategy"." Under Clause 7(2)(a), the strategy must specify, ""the English risk management authorities"." All that is in the forthcoming Bill. We know that the EU floods directive 2007/60/EC covers the assessment and management of flood risks. The implications of its provisions are the subject of this statutory instrument. Earlier water environment regulations charged the Environment Agency with providing a management plan for each river basin district. The new regulations before us introduce the concept of lead authorities and seek to reciprocate their activities, with flood risk assessments, maps and management plans already being undertaken by the Environment Agency. Defra believes that this will not impose an additional burden on the local authorities concerned. That is hard to believe but, as Defra has committed to funding any new burdens for local authorities as a result of these regulations, can local authorities be reassured that their responsibility in this area will be fully funded? I suspect that the LGA’s concern is that it all depends on what is meant by "new burdens". My concern extends beyond the financial to the engineering skills available in-house. There could be considerable costs in employment of consultants, or is the Environment Agency instructed to work alongside local authorities in the work involved? The engineering of water management is a particular branch of the engineering profession. It is there that my particular interest as a fenman and as vice-president of the Association of Drainage Authorities comes into play. It must be suggested that had an IDB or river authority been in place on the Derwent or the Cocker, the impacts of the floods may have been lessened, as the management of the river and its ecology would have benefited from such engineering skills. The regulations before us list IDBs in part 6 as authorities from which the Environment Agency and local authority require information, but that is all. They have no statutory consultation role, unless invited, as far as I can see. I might add that neither do the police or the emergency services, but their knowledge would be invaluable in areas that have experienced floods. This is surely an oversight. It is important that such assessments are properly constructed on sound analysis of the evidence, which requires a professional input. It is obvious that there are implications for property values, both private and commercial, in their publication. I turn to the semantics of hazard and risk. Under Regulations 18 and 19, the Environment Agency and the lead local authorities are required to produce both hazard maps and risk maps. "Risk" is defined under Regulation 3, but of "hazard" there is no sign. Both the Concise Oxford and Chambers dictionaries that I have consulted define "risk" as "hazard" and "hazard" as "risk". Would it not help if the meaning were determined and described so that they were clear and so that the functions of each of these pairs of maps or plans were obvious to us all? Finally, while I do not doubt that these desk exercises can be used to good effect, they are no substitute for on-the-ground management by individuals dedicated to the proper management of water, the sound engineering of our rivers and the safety of people and property. I beg to move.