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Flood and Water Management Bill

I was just remembering our long and happy hours talking about the Essex coastal defences and trying to think of a circumstance in which this clause would be the key to resolving some of the noble Lord’s concerns. Without this clause, the Environment Agency will be restricted in its ability to defend particular parts of the coast; if it holds the line, as it were, and therefore loses some wildlife habitat because the sea comes up against a harder defence—that is generally what happens when you hold the line—a corresponding habitat will have to be created elsewhere to compensate, under the habitats directive. Without this clause, my understanding is that the agency would not be able to do that. There is therefore more likelihood that it would be forced into inflexibilities over what to do about coastal erosion than would otherwise be the case. Defra might tell me that I am wrong, but my understanding is that that is one of the ways in which this clause gives the flexibility to allow such decisions to be made about what is going to happen on the coast in consultation with local people and local authorities, because there is some means of saying, "We are going to put a hard defence here because we can recreate the habitat that has been lost somewhere else". I should declare an interest: I am chairman of the fundraising committee for the Great Fen, which no one, even under the most extreme climate change scenario, will ever regard as being close to the coast—I hope. Nevertheless, it is possible to see that creating wetland habitat in association with the Great Fen could replace habitat that was being lost on the coast that otherwise would mean that it was not possible to make a hard defence and therefore would save prime agricultural land. It is about flexibility and having lots of ways of dealing with it. I am sorry, I am going on now and getting enthusiastic.