Environment Agency: Flood Defence Expenditure Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Earl of Devon
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Environment Agency: Flood Defence Expenditure
Earl of Devon Excerpts(8 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Lord Douglas-Miller (Con)
The issue relating to flooding is not so much where we build our houses but how we build them. Historically, there have been some real challenges putting the right defences in place when houses have been built on flood plains. The reality is that if we banned any housebuilding on any flood plains, we would build very few houses going forward.
The Earl of Devon (CB)
My Lords, I live and farm in a community that was inundated by inches of rain in a couple of hours last September. The 400 year-old school is no longer usable and ancient houses are uninhabitable. The cause of this was a simple lack of maintenance of culverts, ditches and drains by National Highways and local government. They simply do not have the budget to do that. What are the Government going to do to address this and ensure that local government has the money it needs to do the jobs we need?