Flood Defences (Thurnham, Lancashire)

Tuesday 29th October 2013 Westminster Hall

15:49

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

It is a pleasure, Mr Streeter, to serve under your chairmanship and to welcome the Minister to his post. I congratulate him on his appointment; I am sure his response at the end of this debate will show him to be a wise and listening Minister.

Thurnham is a small part of the parish of Glasson Dock, on the edge of Morecambe bay. The sea defences are situated in the Cockerham and Thurnham areas of north-west Lancashire, running approximately 7.7 km from Cocker Bridge on the A558 in the south to Janson Pool in the north, south-west of the port of Glasson. They form an integral part of the west Lancashire coastal defences, providing protection against tidal inundation from what is essentially the estuary of the river Lune as it goes into Morecambe bay.

The area has been subject to flooding damage through overtopping and breaching of the existing defences in the past. The most recent floods occurred in 1977, when approximately 540 hectares of land were affected, and in 1983 and 1990, when approximately 50 hectares were flooded. As one can tell from the description, it is mainly a lowland mixed farming area, with sheep and some dairy. There are also important tourist facilities in the form of caravan parks, scattered residential housing and one listed monument in the remains of Cockersands abbey.

In 1999, Jacobs Engineering completed a business case for Cockersands sea defences, which proposed a “hold the line” option. In January 2004, a reappraisal of the economic business case to refurbish the existing defences was undertaken by Jacobs. It concluded that no capital scheme could be promoted, although it recommended that further options, including managed realignment or continued maintenance, could provide a better business case.

In November 2004, a further study was undertaken to consider the recommendations of the economic reappraisal, and that determined that a managed retreat scheme could be the right economic method, even when all the land and buildings were written off from tidal inundation and purchased at their market value. In arriving at the conclusions, Jacobs recommended that a physically based model to simulate onshore tidal inundation and onshore wave inundation for different return periods was undertaken as its conclusions were limited by the quality of the available flood spread information.

Consequently, maintenance activities continued, in line with the original recommendations from the shoreline management plan. In January 2008, Jacobs completed a technical report, investigating the effects of tidal flooding should the existing defences be removed, as well as the several managed realignment options identified in the 2004 studies. In 2009-10, the shoreline management plan was updated by Halcrow and recommended that a “hold the line” policy should be adopted for years nought to 20, followed by managed realignment for years 20 to 100. The shoreline management plan updated the economic appraisal in line with the latest guidance.

I have raised this debate because I am trying to establish something. Since 2010, there has been a series of meetings between Environment Agency officers on the ground and the Cockersands Forum steering group, which was established by the parish council. All those meetings have been open and transparent, and shared information has gone backwards and forwards, but we are now getting to the point where certain fundamental policy decisions need to be made by Ministers if we are to make any kind of progress.

The Cockersands Forum steering group, which is formed of residents, considered that the flood defence rebuild costs that were put in by the Environment Agency were inflated, and that the reports of the overtopping events from past flooding were inconsistent with their own knowledge of the history of what had happened. Interestingly, I understand that in the middle of the discussions between the agency and the local residents, through the forum, when the sea defences were looked at properly and people walked them, the agency was prepared to admit that the defences were in a better state of repair than was perhaps first apparent.

The discussions have got to the point where the Environment Agency has been prepared to say that it will hold the line for 30 years. That was something better. Clearly, however, the fact that the defences will be maintained for only that amount of time will have a significant impact on the value of residential homes and businesses. How can people in this area now sell or invest for the future, knowing that there is possibly a 30-year time limit, after which the defences will not be manned? The issue for them is this: how can any Government simply let good farming land, good housing and good businesses be slowly ruined, based on assumptions about possible sea levels in 30 years’ time?

It seems ridiculous that lives can be ruined on such speculation when there is no exact science, yet the plans in place already mean that there is blight in the specific area and particular residents are unable to sell their properties, despite wanting to move on because of age or family circumstances. In a sense, it is a death knell to Thurnham and the surrounding area that there can be no movement in and no movement out.

The residents are practical people; as you and the Minister well know, Mr Streeter, we are all practical people in Lancashire. So the residents took the matter further and looked at all the past evidence they had, in the form of photographs and written evidence, about the 1977 flood. They came up with an extremely sophisticated diagram of what had happened in that year. What they proved to the Environment Agency—to be fair, the agency accepted it—was that it was possible to see in some of the historical detail that the flooding covered a much wider area than was set out in the original Environment Agency plan. That, at least, is my understanding.

Now we are in a strange position. My understanding is that the Environment Agency has accepted that local residents, through their knowledge of history and what they have produced, have demonstrated that if the defences go down, a much wider area will be flooded than was set out in its original statement. However, strangely enough, that does not affect any of the agency’s cost-benefit analysis between its original assumptions and its present-day assumptions. It still wishes to stick to a policy of “hold the line” for 30 years and after that to manage retreat, leaving the area, as I have said, to the depredations of the sea and whatever we can predict about the sea and rivers in 30 years’ time. So the strange position is that although residents, to my knowledge and that of the Environment Agency, have demonstrated that a bigger area will be flooded in the future, that will not affect the cost-benefit analysis.

One of the key determinants appears to be the cost-benefit figure that the Treasury established in respect of losing farming land in particular. I understand that this is a long-established Treasury figure, which takes no account of rising population, both here and across the world, or of the increased concern that we all have—in whatever country we live—about food security.

I wish to ask a particular question of the Minister. If my assumptions are correct about this cost-benefit analysis, are his Department or the Treasury, or both, doing any work to look again at revising the old cost-benefit of farming land, given the national situation in terms of population growth and the political concerns among all parties about food security?

Secondly, let us take the boundaries of my constituency and that particular part of the west coast of Lancashire. At the end of my constituency is the town of Fleetwood, where the Government have just agreed—I am grateful for it—that £65 million is to be used to improve flood defences. The Rossall sea wall needs to be demolished so that a new wall can be put in. It will protect 12,000 homes.

However, from the outside it looks as if the Lancashire coast is being dealt with in separate sections. Fleetwood, quite rightly, gets £65 million; the sea wall there needs attending to. If anyone sees that sea wall, they will know that it is like the Berlin wall. The poor residents need something that might look better and might do a better job. However, just along the coast, there is another village called Pilling, where I have regular meetings. Again, that is a lowland area, next to Thurnham, where there are also concerns about flooding and land drainage. Yet at the Pilling meetings, there is no mention of what is happening next door in Thurnham. That might be because Thurnham comes under Lancaster district council and Pilling comes under Wyre district council. Nevertheless, it seems a bit odd, because my understanding of water is that when it comes through the dykes or over or through the sea defences, it does not worry whether it is flooding Pilling or Thurnham, which are next to each other.

One question that I have for the Minister has already been asked by people in local parishes—what happened to the old land drainage boards, which used to cover wider areas? Also, is there a bureaucratic impasse because of different council boundaries? Do we need to consider a better structure in the long term? That might not be the land drainage structure of the old days, which I understand was somewhat bureaucratic—but at least it involved local landowners, on a wider scale, in the nature of drainage and flooding of their areas.

Will the Minister consider looking at a different vehicle, which could involve, yes, the parishes, villages and local residents in some form or fashion and enable them to cut across the district councils and look at land drainage areas as they are—that is, as geographical drainage areas that do not respect council boundaries? Perhaps we could deal with some kind of operation in those terms.

My understanding is that there has been some discussion on the east coast of this country about such schemes, and that there are still some leftover remnants of the old land drainage boards around the place. They might give us some pilot schemes to see whether the boards could be revamped in the ways I have outlined.

What the people of my constituency, in my part of Lancashire, are looking for is a wider look at what the Government’s plans are for the future. How can a Government spend so much money—quite rightly, in the case of Fleetwood—to protect one part of the coast, and then leave another part to the vagaries of what the science presumes will happen in 30 years’ time: sea levels will be somewhat higher and farming land will not be as valuable as it could be? Farming land is not as valuable as people’s lives, of course; I accept that. Somehow we do not seem to see what the wider plan for the area is. If my residents were able to see and understand that wider plan, they might have a better way of grasping what the Environment Agency’s and the Government’s policies are.

I am particularly interested in learning what the new Minister—the new broom, as they say—might want to do to offer some succour to people across my constituency, whatever district council they belong to. Some have suggested that there is a deliberate attempt to carve off one village against another. I would never support such conspiracy theories; I simply think that it is good old bureaucracy again.

The third thing that I want to raise is a little blue-sky thinking; although we are practical in Lancashire, we can think outside the box. If the Environment Agency is going to hold the line and if the Government are going to supply the money to keep the sea defences going for 30 years and then make a decision—we have not discussed this with the parish council, although it has been talked about in the area generally—could there be a special levy in the area as part of the parish rate, which could go into a fund to be invested for 30 years? We wanted to describe it as a sinking fund, but since we are talking about flooding, let us talk about a floating fund.

If the levy was £25 a year, let us say, with 500 residents paying it, in 30 years there would be more than £300,000 before interest. Any parish or group of residents would be in a very strong position, whoever the Government were in 30 years’ time. If they had a body of money to contribute, it would make it much more difficult for the Government of the time to say, “We are still going to abandon the defences.”

I have discussed the levy with the district council. If there were such a charge, and if somebody wanted to buy a property, would it appear in the land charges office? If it did appear, would the fact that it was offering another stage of protection help to maintain the values? This is anecdotal evidence, but various estate agents in Lancaster feel that it would help to maintain values and keep that exchange of property and businesses going on, because there would be further protection building up over time.

Interestingly, the council said there was nothing in law that would allow it to specify such a measure on a land charge. However, that might not be needed. It might simply need a parish rate and a parish flood defence rate. I do not know. I assume that when searches are made, the council charge and parish charge come up, so perhaps we could come up with a flood defence charge.

As I said, this is blue-sky thinking. The residents have jobs to do, and we are all trying to find a practical way to assist Government and the Environment Agency. It would be really helpful if some of the experts, who I know exist in the Department, could look at the idea. It might mean talking to the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The residents of Thurnham are trying to find a way in which they can be seen to be helping themselves, but, for 30 years—perhaps even longer—they need Government support to protect the land that they have bought, where they have built their businesses, or have retired to, or where they run their farms.

I did not secure this debate because of any angst with the Environment Agency. I can see an officer here from the Environment Agency; we have met on several occasions. The agency has dealt with the matter absolutely transparently in an up-front way and with a great deal of sensitivity and understanding. We are talking about people’s lives, businesses and properties, and I pay due credit to it. However, we have now hit an impasse and we need Ministers to start looking at the policy implications.

If the problem exists in Thurnham, which is a small part of Lancashire—obviously dear to me as part of my constituency, and even more dear to the people who have built their lives and businesses there—it must exist across the piece. It cannot be right for any Government to take a 30 or 50-year view that somehow, because it is mainly agricultural land, it will be worth less than it is today. If people are willing to try to find a vehicle to help themselves and to join with the Government in maintaining the sea defences, it cannot be impossible to find the time, effort and brains to provide them with a little extra help.

I will be delighted to hear the Minister’s comments about those three points. I understand that he cannot say yes, but if he could stand up and say that Thurnham will be protected for the next 100 years, I would be more than grateful. I understand his position. He might need to take the issues away, but Thurnham in Lancashire is willing to help and to offer ideas. It desperately wants to keep the livelihoods of people who have farmed there for generations. Generations of family life have gone into that particular area, and they simply want a future for themselves, their children and the people of Lancashire, and to keep a beautiful part of Lancashire safe from the sea.

16:15

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dan Rogerson)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Streeter. I want to thank the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Eric Ollerenshaw) for giving us the opportunity to explore the issues. I also thank him for the way in which he has approached the subject. It would be too easy for a constituency MP to come here and say, “There’s a problem. What are you doing about it, Government?” He is doing that to a certain extent, but he is also saying that the people in the communities that he represents are very open to being a part of the solution and to working in partnership with the Government and the Environment Agency to achieve that. I welcome the role that he has played in bringing the sides together and ensuring that we have a helpful way forward, and I really mean that.

As a Member of Parliament representing a coastal constituency, I know exactly what the hon. Gentleman is talking about in terms of discussions on managing the coastline for the future. I represent, among many other communities, the village of Boscastle, where, as the hon. Gentleman might remember, there was a horrendous flood in 2004, which also affected communities in Crackington Haven and Canworthy Water. The issues of flooding are foremost in my mind both as a constituency MP and as a Minister with new responsibilities, which I am trying to carry out to the best of my ability.

The hon. Gentleman will be aware—in fact, he pointed to this—of the national scale of the challenge that we face on flood management. In England, one in six properties is at risk of flooding. By area, 11% of the country benefits from flood defences, including some of our most important commercial and economic centres. This includes 1.3 million hectares of agricultural land—a point that the hon. Gentleman made. The majority of the most versatile and productive farmland in England is in flood risk areas. The soil is often productive because it is in a river catchment, and it is very fertile, but it is intrinsically vulnerable to flooding.

Flood management supports the Government’s primary objective to deliver economic growth and build a stronger economy, and it remains a top priority for the Department. The Secretary of State and my predecessor have both been very clear about that commitment. Proof of our commitment to flood management can be seen in the announcement this summer on long-term capital settlement to improve flood management infrastructure. This announcement set out a record level of capital investment of more than £2.3 billion in the six years to 2021.

However, we are not only increasing capital expenditure; we are providing an above-inflation increase of £5 million for the Environment Agency’s flood maintenance work in 2015-16. That is very important for schemes such as the hon. Gentleman’s, which have been there for some time, and we need to maintain them for the next few decades. As he has outlined, there is a potential plan, but we cannot guarantee that beyond 30 years. That is not to say that we will walk away after 30 years, but we will come back to such issues as I continue my speech. Although we have made significant commitments, I know that the hon. Gentleman is aware of the need to contain public expenditure. Central Government funding is simply not sufficient to pay for everything that would be worth while to some degree in flood management. As a result, there will continue to be stiff competition for Government funding, and we must ensure that we get the best value for money for the taxpayers’ investment.

The Environment Agency’s capital programme currently provides an average of at least £8 of benefits in damages avoided for every pound invested in construction of defences. However, the benefits realised are in fact even greater. Once the capital has been spent on construction, the routine maintenance of those defences can provide an even higher rate of return. The agency estimates an average benefit-cost ratio of 14 to 1 for its asset maintenance programme.

It is no longer the case that the Government fund only the cream of projects with the very best benefit-cost ratios, while leaving other worthwhile projects with nothing. In 2011, we introduced partnership funding to ensure that a fair portion of DEFRA funding can be made available for any worthwhile improvement scheme. That inevitably means that not all Government-funded schemes are fully funded. The new approach ensures that investment in flood management is not constrained by what the Government alone can afford, thereby increasing certainty and transparency on the level of DEFRA funding for projects, leveraging further investment towards worthwhile projects, allowing greater local ownership and choice, and encouraging more cost-effective solutions. That is just the approach that the hon. Gentleman’s constituents are keen to see.

So far, partnership funding has brought forward up to £148 million in external funding over the four years to 2015, compared with £13 million during the previous three years. That huge increase in match funding is helping those projects, which were perhaps slightly less attractive initially, into development.

Early indications suggest that up to 25% more schemes will go ahead in the coming years than if project costs were met by central Government alone. That is relevant to the hon. Gentleman’s case because a partnership approach is clearly needed to manage the flood risk in such areas. The work of the Environment Agency and other risk-management authorities in the shoreline management plan has highlighted that issue. Further hydraulic modelling and more detailed economic appraisal commissioned by the agency has clarified the fact that the most effective option is not managed realignment but maintaining the existing line of defences for as long as it is feasible to do so. We are then back to the cost of doing that beyond the 30-year period.

The defences will eventually need to be rebuilt. They can be patched for only so long, and it seems unlikely that central Government funding will be able to meet the full cost of those projects. The Environment Agency has told me that it estimates that the defences will need to be rebuilt at the end of that period. In the meantime, I understand that the agency’s recommended policy is to continue to maintain the defences, subject to the availability of funding.

I have already explained the priority the Government place on flood management and the resources they have secured to demonstrate that commitment. However, I cannot tell the hon. Gentleman what the funding situation will be in 30 years’ time. I have highlighted the competition that already exists for that funding. The geography of the area means that, although the maintenance and renewal of the defences is economic, the case for investment to improve the defences may not be so great as in some other areas, including areas elsewhere in his constituency that, as he points out, are about to receive significant investment. In such situations, the community cannot assume that the taxpayer will guarantee the full cost of maintaining and improving the defences, so there will need to be a partnership. Any local arrangements that reduce the cost of maintaining and improving the defences, or raise contributions from other sources, will help to deliver that.

The Environment Agency is undertaking local discussions on how best to manage flood risk, including the residual risks if flooding does occur. I ask only that the hon. Gentleman encourages all interests to work together, as he is clearly doing.

The hon. Gentleman has highlighted a number of solutions suggested by the community. His first question was on why areas are considered separately. Bluntly, it is because there are different risks in different areas. Some flood risks are linked to river catchments, and some are connected to topography and its interaction with the sea, so there are a number of solutions for different areas. Cost-benefit ratios have to be considered in relation to the number of families and homes at risk. All of those things are considered alongside each other, so they are not held entirely in isolation. We have to consider individual schemes. In Thurnham, of course, there is an existing defence, which highlights the fact that we are looking at a particular catchment in relative isolation.

There are still many internal drainage boards doing great work across the country. They are established and have set procedures and set ways of bringing in the revenue they need to carry out the work that they want to do. We are very supportive of projects and innovation, so we have allowed seven pilots to proceed in which the maintenance of watercourses will be considered. The internal drainage boards and farmers are keen on that, and we will look at how those pilots go.

The hon. Gentleman’s constituency has a coastal situation. There may be a solution that we can move towards, although we will have to consider how that model might work in his case. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has previously said that he is happy for there to be new internal drainage boards if needed, so long as we are sure that they fit the circumstances that the hon. Gentleman describes.

On the “floating fund” that the hon. Gentleman excellently outlines, it would be positive to see the community taking steps to prepare for what might happen in 30 years’ time. He has asked me to contact colleagues in the Department for Communities and Local Government to consider what might be the best mechanism to achieve that, and I am happy to do so because we want to overcome any barriers to the local community starting that fund so that the contributions can begin to be built up ready for such an eventuality.

I will continue to ensure that flood management remains a priority and that Government resources are used to the best possible effect. We will continue to bear down on costs and to press the Environment Agency and other risk management authorities to look for better ways of working within available budgets. That will, however, need to be in partnership with local communities, such as those that the hon. Gentleman so ably represents today.

DEFRA is working to remove unnecessary burdens that might discourage farmers and landowners who want to undertake their own maintenance, and there may well be other approaches, too. On 14 October we launched seven watercourse maintenance pilots, and we will consider whether they achieve the outcomes hoped for by the IDBs in those areas. One of those pilots is in the Alt Crossens area of Lancashire, which is particularly relevant to the hon. Gentleman. He may wish to look at what is happening there.

Nationally, the Environment Agency is working with the National Farmers Union and other partners to improve communications and guidance for farmers who wish to undertake their own maintenance. Although I am focusing on those challenges, I do not underplay what is being achieved now and what could be achieved in future both in rural and urban areas. The agency is currently maintaining more than 97% of flood defence assets in high-risk areas in the required condition. Those defences help to protect more than 1.6 million properties and the vast majority of the most productive and versatile agricultural land.

Capital projects in the DEFRA-funded national programme completed in the past two years have provided improved flood protection to more than 150,000 hectares of farmland, as well as improving protection for more than 100,000 households. Protecting households and farmland from the risk of flooding underpins the Government’s priorities of delivering economic growth and building a stronger economy, and I am happy to work with the hon. Gentleman to deliver that.