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Flood and Water Management Bill

I thank Members on both sides of the House for their examination of the Bill and the improvements that they made. I am particularly grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) for all her work on behalf of the Conservatives both in Committee and on Report, and I join the Secretary of State in paying tribute to the Minister's work. He conducted proceedings in Committee and on Report in the same constructive manner as he did those on the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, which is much appreciated—it facilitates the passage of better legislation. As they sit here at this late hour, I also thank Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials for their work behind the scenes, which is often unappreciated. There is a great deal of agreement on the Bill across the House. Eighteen months after the Pitt review, it is essential that we make the changes needed to protect people and communities from floods and their aftermath. As the Secretary of State rightly said, the recent Environment Agency report into the 2007 floods reminded us of their huge financial impact—more than £3 billion—and there were thousands of cases of personal suffering, with people losing possessions, property and, in the very worst cases, their lives. Those problems are not going to go away; indeed, there is plenty of evidence that they could get worse. We are all well aware that this will be a short parliamentary Session—perhaps the Secretary of State knows exactly how short, perhaps not—and we have been pleased to co-operate to help ensure that the Bill makes it on to the statute book before the general election is called. As I said on Second Reading, it is a pity that we were unable to include some important water industry measures because of the shortage of time, and we will need to return to them in the future. Despite the general consensus, we remain concerned about a few measures in the Bill, and we hope to work constructively to address them in the other place without impeding its passage. At the heart of the elements of the Bill relating to flooding are oversight powers given to the Environment Agency. The national strategy created under the Bill will be a comprehensive document setting out the overall approach to be taken. That is welcome, but we must guard against an overly centralising approach that leaves too little discretion to local authorities, and that does not empower them to implement the measures they consider most appropriate. The assurances given in Committee that the national strategy would not be too centralising and that it would allow for such discretion were welcome, but we would like the Government to be clearer that they are not offering hostages to fortune by refusing sensible changes that would clarify the relationship between the national and local strategies. We must also ensure that concerns about the accountability of Environment Agency decisions are addressed. Some issues relating to the automatic right to connect remain. Sewer flooding is one of the most unpleasant forms of flooding that people can experience. If the Bill can be improved so that incidences of that can be reduced, it should be so amended. It should also be amended so that sewerage systems that do not meet the required standards, or that risk causing flooding elsewhere, are excluded. The Secretary of State today added a new clause to allow social tariffs. Affordability is a significant and growing problem in the water industry, and with one in six customers complaining of unaffordable bills, it needs addressing. That is a concern on both sides of the House. We welcome the work done by Anna Walker in her review, but that package of measures needs consultation and a formal response from the Government rather than a piecemeal approach. It is important that there is a full assessment of those proposals, including proper consultation with the industry, the regulator and consumer groups. As I said on Second Reading, we have proposed a White Paper for the industry to set out a direction of travel and draw together the various strands of thinking currently going on, which would focus heavily on the problems of affordability. This would provide a clear strategy, and necessary certainty, for the water industry. I continue to believe that that is the right approach, enabling a holistic package of measures for water management. It may very well be the case that the introduction of cross-subsidies is a suitable way of dealing with the problems of affordability. After all, there is now cross-party support for action to deal with problems in relation to charging community groups for surface water drainage, as the Secretary of State pointed out. However, Ofwat has in general been working to unwind cross-subsidies, while today's new clause allows for new ones. We need further debate and clarity about the implications for all customers, and the potential effects need to be transparent. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) argued, with typical cogency, we are in danger of requiring very poor households to be subsidised by the only slightly less poor. Late-tabled clauses on Report are not the way to consider this issue properly. Hon. Members of all parties are concerned about the issue of insurance and the way in which properties can be affected by flood risk. There was insufficient time to consider properly new clause 14, tabled by the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood), which focused on the problem of homes that have not been flooded but have nevertheless been hit by raised insurance premiums. New clause 14 bore similarities to our new clause 11, and we are sympathetic to these concerns and happy to work with the Government and the Liberal Democrats to see how the issue can be addressed in the other place. This Bill was introduced in the aftermath of the Cumbrian floods, which dominated the news before Christmas. Two months on, only a handful of families are back in their homes, with more than 1,000 houses still empty. Most will not be able to return until May. It is essential that the people of Cockermouth, Workington and the surrounding area are not forgotten, as hon. Members on both sides of the House have said. We should constantly be reminded of people who remain homeless as a result of flooding, wherever it occurs, so that we are spurred to action to get them back in their homes as soon as possible, and so that we remain mindful of future risks. That is why we proposed amending the Bill, in line with the Pitt report, to introduce a requirement on the Secretary of State to give regular updates on the recovery process, and we hope that the Government will respond favourably when we raise that point again in the other place. We failed to reach consideration of amendments about reservoirs, and there are concerns that provisions in the Bill on inspection may be unnecessarily onerous for small reservoirs in agricultural areas and for golf courses, where there is no risk to public safety. We want to ensure that regulation is proportionate and that reservoirs that pose no risk are not caught unnecessarily. We shall return to that issue in the other place. As I have said, this is a much needed Bill and we support it. Members on both sides of the House agree on the importance of reducing the risks of flooding and making changes to our national and local response to incidences of flooding when, regrettably, they occur. We are committed to playing our part in enabling the passage of this legislation and I am sure that the other place, while maintaining the rigorous scrutiny that is its time-honoured and important role, will also be mindful of the need to see this Bill reach the statute book.