---

Flood and Water Management Bill

It’s the same speech in every Bill, as my noble friend has indicated. I assure the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, and the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, that the apparent omission of "expected" from the national strategy, to which Amendment 12 is addressed, is deliberate. It reflects the fact that this operates at a higher level so that the implementation of measures or approaches, such as flood warnings or works programmes, can be managed to ensure that they are implemented to time and to budget. The local strategies, however, may contain physical or other works in particular locations. The Bill therefore reflects the fact that these might be delayed, for example, due to requirements for planning permission or the availability of specialist plants or materials. So we do need an element of flexibility—an elasticity—in relation to the local position whereas with the national position we can determine broad strategy and be definitive. Hence the reason for the Bill as drafted. As the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, knows only too well, nothing that the Government ever draft in a Bill is inadvertent; it is always deliberately thought through and carefully considered before being presented to Parliament. Amendment 13 would require the national strategy to include information on how measures are to be assessed and the schemes prioritised. The national strategy will work at a high level, setting out broad approaches and principles applicable to the management of all sources of flood and coastal erosion. It is likely that the principles for assessment and prioritisation of government expenditure will be set out in the strategy, but the methodology adopted will be set out in guidance so that an appropriate level of detail can be provided. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, would not let me get away without this assurance: the appropriate level of detail can be provided and updated to reflect changing circumstances. Perhaps I can indicate to the noble Lord another word of constructive comfort. He included in his illustration of local issues the town of Pickering, a town for which I have the greatest affection. As he said, it is a most attractive town. As I recall, it also makes for a well-deserved holiday. After you have spent six weeks lecturing at the University of Boston during the year in which they were celebrating the bicentenary of the American Revolution, you need a holiday when you get back. I took one in Pickering and greatly enjoyed it. I therefore have the town’s interests greatly at heart and am delighted to assure the noble Lord that Defra of course recognises the difficulties he has identified with regard to Pickering and the threats to it. That is why we are funding a landscape scale trial to see whether tree-planting and water storage can reduce the risk. This is an Environment Agency, Forestry Commission and National Parks project—all those organisations are involved—which is being funded by Defra. This falls outside the main capital programme, so the noble Lord will at least give the department credit for having anticipated that he might contribute to this debate and mention Pickering. I assure him that we do not discriminate between urban and rural. The appraisal system discriminates and that is why funding is targeted first at where the benefits are greatest and the potential damage is very serious. We do not distinguish between urban and rural; the question is where the threat is and where the issue needs to be addressed. On Amendment 58, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale, which presages considerable debate later on, I emphasise that the Government are considering the scope of the review of Ofwat. It will take into account our deliberations on these issues today and those that I hope we will have next week as we discuss the Bill. However, Ofwat already has a duty under Section 2 of the Water Industry Act to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, so it has an obligation. We have no doubt that the Bill will throw up some interesting insights into the necessity for effective action, and we will ensure that this is translated into the Ofwat review.