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Flood and Water Management Bill

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. It reminds me of another incident in my constituency, which provides an analogy. A chemical factory exploded; the Environment Agency was monitoring it. We all knew it was dangerous and said so at the time. I visited the site and came away not feeling at all well, and I made that clear to the agency. However, it was rather frightened that it did not have the power, the clout, the ability or the confidence to deal with the problem. That factory exploded in October 2000, leaving many people unwell as a result. We got rid of the factory; it left my constituency. The Environment Agency was very concerned about being taken to court by the company if it carried out certain actions that everyone in the area knew should have been done. The explosion proved us right: we were not scaremongering; it could have killed people. A couple of days after the explosion, it was, amazingly, flooded. It is a big issue. I would like to see the Environment Agency's role more clearly defined, and if it is given more responsibilities and powers, it will need more resources. That brings me to amendment 5, which adopts a similar philosophy in seeking to ensure that local authorities are properly financed for "training and equipment costs" and that their ability to carry out what they need to carry out is laid before Parliament. There is considerable concern among local authorities about being given extra responsibilities, duties and powers without the concomitant funding. As my hon. Friend mentioned, we are not entirely convinced that the appropriate amount of money will be given to local authorities. The Minister did his best in Committee to assure us that there would be enough; I just hope that that is the case. The main planks of the Bill are that the Environment Agency shall prepare a strategy and implement it, and that the lead local funding authority shall prepare a strategy and implement it. If those strategies are to be effective, they are going to require the confidence of having the necessary resources provided. With those few remarks, I support my hon. Friend in respect of new clauses 2 and 9 and amendment 5.