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Flood and Water Management Bill

The Committee, I am sure, is very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, for initiating this interesting and important debate on Clause 38 and the role of the Environment Agency. I thank all noble Lords who have spoken, particularly those who support the Government’s position, including the noble Baroness, Lady Young, and, I think, in the end, the noble Lord, Lord Greaves. I hope that I shall be able to reassure the noble Earl, Lord Selborne, the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, and the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, that the clause is important and should be part of the Bill. The clause allows the Environment Agency to carry out works to manage flooding, coastal erosion or water levels for the benefit of the environment, including the conservation of nature and landscape, the preservation of cultural heritage and people’s enjoyment of the environment or cultural heritage. However, before carrying out such works, the Environment Agency would be required to be satisfied that the benefits of the works outweighed any potentially harmful consequences and consult—the list is quite long—the lead local flood authority for the area in which the work was to be carried out, the district council for that area, if any, the internal drainage board, if any, whose area the work was in, and the owners and occupiers of land likely in the opinion of the agency to be affected by the works. In carrying out works, the Environment Agency must have regard also to both the national and local flood and coastal erosion risk management strategies, and any guidance issued on the application of those strategies. The local strategy will be led by the lead local flood authority, which must involve the Environment Agency, other local authorities and internal drainage boards in its creation. I hope that the noble Earl, Lord Selborne, will agree that that answers one of the important points that he made; it is a reply also to the noble Baroness, Lady Byford. Furthermore, any project which involves any material change in the use of land will require planning permission, with all the related public and democratic processes that that implies. Taking all this together, I would describe the position as one in which both local democratic organisations and wider processes of consultation play a full part in the decisions on the use of the power. It is hard to sustain an argument to the contrary. Deleting the clause would seriously affect the Environment Agency’s capacity to manage water in an integrated fashion and carry out projects which would harness the positive effects of flooding and erosion. We are accustomed to thinking of flooding and erosion as destructive forces, as they often are, but they can also have enormously constructive effects. In the face of uncertainty around the magnitude of the impact of climate change, we must retain the capacity to manage flood waters in an integrated and beneficial way as well as reducing the potentially harmful effects. The new definition of flood and coastal erosion risk management in the Bill permits authorities to use their functions to take action to reduce the potentially harmful effects of flooding or erosion. However, it does not allow them to do things solely to gain the beneficial effects of those processes. That is why we need Clause 38. There was much debate in the other place about the need to manage flood risk in an integrated way at a landscape scale, through working with natural processes. This approach is strongly supported by the National Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the wildlife trusts which have recently written a joint letter to Ministers expressing their concern at the possible removal of this clause. They also state in their letter to the Minister that they have written to Nick Herbert—known to the noble Lord, Lord Taylor—in the other place, ""outlining why these powers are vital to the continued functioning of water level management schemes that protect some of our most cherished and wildlife rich landscapes, such as the Norfolk Broads and Somerset Levels and Moors. We also highlighted why they are vital if the Environment Agency is to continue delivering wetland creation in partnership with farmers, allowing them to adapt their business in areas that are no longer economic to defend"." The final paragraph of the letter refers to the process of wash-up, on which we are embarking tomorrow, and the trusts state their hope that Clause 38 will survive that process. That is not a matter for me today, but I should like to put it on record that the letter supports the inclusion of the clause. This concept was also promoted by Sir Michael Pitt in his review of the 2007 floods when he recognised that it is important to ensure that water is in the right place at the right time and that it should be kept away from areas where it can be destructive. Clause 39, to which a number of your Lordships referred, provides the same powers for internal drainage boards and local authorities. We believe that those bodies should have those powers and be able to play their part in this integrated approach. It would be strange for the Environment Agency, our principal national water management body, not to have similar powers. Indeed, I remind the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, that in Committee on 17 March, in relation to an amendment on Clause 7, he said: ""We will deal later with the relationship between local and national strategies but, for the purpose of this debate, we are broadly content with the twin-track approach"." From that, I understood him to be supporting the role of the Environment Agency and the local authorities, but perhaps he would—