Storm Babet: Flooding

Lord Benyon Excerpts

Wednesday 25th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Benyon) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government acknowledge the terrible impact the storm has had on householders and businesses, and sympathise with those affected, particularly the friends and families of those who have so tragically lost their lives in recent days. I thank the noble Baronesses for raising the tragic circumstances of this storm.

I, too, thank the emergency responders, local authorities, volunteers, Defra and the Environment Agency for their tireless efforts to help communities across the country. So far, 1,375 properties have flooded during Storm Babet, and more than 62,000 properties have been protected by existing flood defences. More than 900 Environment Agency staff have been working tirelessly to protect communities, with 451 people on the ground and 473 in incident rooms across the country.

The areas impacted worst by the storm were in Suffolk, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and south Yorkshire, where major incidents were declared. There was also disruption to road and rail networks. The UK’s topography has evolved towards predominantly westerly weather patterns but, in this case, the direction of the weather meant that east-facing and south-east-facing slopes took the brunt of the rainfall. This was further complicated by a band of high pressure over Scandinavia that trapped rainfall over the north of England and Scotland.

The Flood Forecasting Centre notified the department of the approaching storm on Monday 16 October. A cross-government meeting was held last Wednesday to inform preparedness action. Defra also activated its emergency operation centre to co-ordinate the national response, bringing the United Kingdom Government together with the Scottish and Welsh Governments. This action enabled the Environment Agency and local responders to increase the readiness of flood defences and the clearing of potential blockages. Equipment was transferred from different parts of the country to areas that were forecast to be affected worst; however, we know of some areas where assets were overwhelmed, having not been designed for such rare, extreme levels of rainfall. As the Secretary of State for the Environment noted in her evidence to the EFRA Select Committee yesterday, we will do a rapid review of our response—as we do on all such occasions—working with the Met Office to identify any learning.

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, for raising the issue of farmers. I thank them and land managers whose land is used to protect communities from the devastation of flooding and coastal erosion. They have an increasingly important role to play in reducing the risk of flooding and coastal erosion as we adapt to climate change through measures such as natural flood management.

As we move into the recovery phase, the Prime Minister announced today a significant package of support that will be available to areas in England that have experienced exceptional localised flooding. The support will be made available through a scheme known as the flood recovery framework, which is used in exceptional circumstances to support councils and communities following severe flooding.

Turning to the issues raised, I absolutely agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, that the frequency and prevalence of these incidents will be a regular feature of our lives. We are rightly planning for that and trying to adapt our infrastructure to support communities. Dr Neumann is right, which is why we are helping households across the country by incentivising them to protect their homes, as well as protecting them through different types of flood measures. Some of those measures are hard—concrete and steel—and some are nature-based solutions, which we are learning much more about and which can have a huge, much more cost-effective impact on protecting people.

There is absolutely a plan for increasing the amount of spend on our infrastructure and making sure that we are protecting as many homes as possible. We have a clear plan for that. Many properties that were in danger of flooding have been taken out of danger by the investment that has been spent and by a greater understanding of data. Many years ago, as the Minister responsible for floods, I visited Bristol and saw that it had a system with millions of data points around the city. It could put all sorts of different weather events on to that software and predict, right down to household level, the risks that may be faced. Sometimes it is just about raising a kerb or building a wall, and sometimes it is about a much bigger system. That is what we have done in response to the Pitt review following the devastating floods of 2007.

With our national flood response centre, we have the best system of dealing with this. It is an evolving system and, whether you call it COBRA-style or whatever, it works and reflects the finding of the Pitt review that we needed much more emphasis on local resilience. That is what this delivers, but it draws it together on a national level, working with our devolved partners. The game-changer on this has been partnership funding, which has seen many more flood protections delivered. It is a measure that I introduced—with opposition at the time from the Labour Party, which called it a flood tax. I predicted then that the Labour Party, if it ever got into government, would not change partnership funding. I do not know whether that will ever happen, but partnership funding is a way to deliver a massive increase in protection of homes.

What we are facing is a result of a changing climate, and our climate change mitigation measures are vital. Our adaptation is vital. The Climate Change Committee is right, and I am proud that we are a leading country in decarbonising our economy and playing our part internationally by assisting other countries in decarbonising their economies.

The noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, asked about our early warning system. We have tested this. We had the largest civil contingency exercise ever, a tier 1 contingency exercise, Watermark. That was followed last year by Floodex 2022, which was exercised around the Trent, one of the rivers that was affected this year. Our system of warning people has improved. It is not perfect—nothing ever is in these circumstances—but our flood defences are maintained at a point where 94% of them are at target condition. We want to see that increased to 98%. I would like it to be 100%, but 98% is a realistic target.

We have doubled spending. It was, as the noble Baroness said, £2.6 billion; it is now £5.2 billion. That is a flood and coastal erosion budget. I entirely accept what she says about flood forums. I have seen them in action. They involve local people in a way that we never saw before 2007. They were a product of a number of changes that were made. They have involved communities at a very local level and seen real benefit and change. I too pay tribute to the RNLI. One lifeboat in Scotland was at sea for 18 hours saving people from a trawler in the teeth of the storm. The courage of the RNLI is second to none. I am not aware of the helicopter issue but will certainly discuss it with my colleague in that department.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for bringing forward this Statement. My thoughts are with the victims—those who died and lost their lives, and all those who were flooded in such extreme circumstances. During the debate on the levelling-up Bill, regarding the amendments on increasing flood protection, we established—and my noble friend will recall this because at the time we were on the shadow team for the precursor to Flood Re—that any house built after 2009 is not insured if it is built on a flood plain. Through the course of the debate on the amendment, we understood that mapping the divisions between zones 3a and 3b, which determine which flood plains can or cannot be built on, is the responsibility of local authorities. Will my noble friend explore to what extent this mapping is taking place so that planning authorities know where these houses can or cannot be built, and will he use his best offices to tackle surface water flooding? We are awaiting the implementation of Schedule 3 to the 2010 Act.

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for her continued interest in this matter. She has reminded me that I did not respond to the point that the noble Baroness asked about building on flood plains. If we said that no more properties were to be built on flood plains—I know that this is not what she or my noble friend would say—we would be saying that there should be no more houses built in York, Leeds or even London and a great many other communities. What we want to see is flood-resilient homes being built, and there are plenty of examples in this country and around the world where you can build, in certain circumstances, flood-resistant housing on flood plains. But, by and large, we do not want to see this. The National Planning Policy Framework is very clear about this, and we have underpinned that recently.

My noble friend is right that Flood Re relates to houses built before that date, and that is one of the levers we are trying to apply to prevent the wrong kind of houses being built in the wrong place, but I will certainly look at the point she raises. Prior to Flood Re, 9% of policyholders with a prior flood claim could obtain flood insurance quotes from two or more insurers, and no one could get quotes from five or more. Following the scheme’s launch, most customers can now get more than 10 quotes. It has been a resounding success in supporting people for whom the fear of floods was dramatic; we would all like to see it extended. I point out that the Build Back Better scheme gives an added value of £10,000 to a household not just to restore a house after flooding but to make sure that it does not flood again. I note her point about Schedule 3, which she constantly raises. She knows that we are consulting on it, and the Government have given a clear commitment to bringing that into force.

[Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I send my respects to all those who so tragically lost their lives in Storm Babet, and to those who face such enormous challenges in rebuilding their lives. I thank my noble friend Lady Hayman for her outstanding response to the Government’s Statement. As well as thanking the Minister, I will ask a general question about flood defences in all areas of London, particularly the Thames Barrier. I heard some reports about it during the discussion of Storm Babet, and I want to understand what assessment the Government have made to ensure the barrier is safe and strengthened given, as he said, the extreme rain we have experienced of late.

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

In the wider context, the Government are investing £5.2 billion to build flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities, and almost 60,000 properties are better protected. We tend not to tell the story of the houses that are not flooded; for obvious reasons, we concentrate on those that are. Some 314,000 properties were better protected through the Government’s £2.6 billion investment between 2015 and 2021. The Thames Barrier is vital to the security of this global city that we are in now, and some long-term work is going on around future-proofing it to adapt to rising sea levels and the constant improved data we have on east coast tidal surges. We have had some narrow misses in some communities up the east coast in the past. The Thames Barrier has worked, is regularly reviewed and is expertly managed, but in time, unless we can contain this planet to 1.5 degrees of warming, we have to look at that kind of infrastructure as something that we will need to modify and possibly replace with a larger scheme further on down the estuary.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister mentioned the flooding in Suffolk, and I absolutely agree with what he said. Parts of Norfolk were also very badly affected. As a number of noble Lords have pointed out, the first priority is the victims who tragically suffered death and injury in these floods. The next priority would be the quite dreadful damage to property —to homes, farms, livestock and infrastructure. But the third priority, down the list of priorities, is the widespread discharge of sewage from storm overflows. I gather that this was really severe in many areas. The sheer volume of water is going to mitigate that, to some extent, but there will be lasting impacts on local river habitats in some areas. What more are the water utilities going to do and how will the Government work with them on this agenda?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for his question. This is an absolute priority for the Government and we are putting in record sums. We want to see £52 billion spent by water companies on upgrading their sewage systems. I will give my noble friend an example: there are eight villages up a small chalk stream close to where I live. Every one of those villages has increased in size by between 15% and 30% more households over the last few decades. While some attempts have been made to improve the sewage infrastructure up that river system, a lot more needs to be spent on it. It is now being spent on that and many other rivers, but we need to make sure that we look at this in the context of the vital necessity to protect the environment and the rare and wonderful chalk streams and other rivers that exist, including those close to where my noble friend lives. We also need to make sure that we consider the ability of that infrastructure to withstand the impact of storms, and that those are not just seen as an excuse, by some, to release more sewage into our environment.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, I join many others in offering my deepest sympathy to the families of those who tragically died in Storm Babet and those whose businesses and homes were torn apart by the flood-waters and the storm.

I am sure the Minister will join me in regretting another impact of the storm that was very visual on social media—the loss of fertile topsoil. To cite one example, a farmer in the east Midlands, Sarah Bell, posted a video of storm-water rushing down the lanes around her property. It was a very deep brown colour taking, as Sarah said, “precious” topsoil with it. This raises the point that time is passing by. Many times in the past, the Minister and I have discussed the protection of our soils and he has pointed me to the 25-year environment plan, which says that our soils must be sustainably managed by 2030. Looking at how much soil we have lost from erosion in just the last few days, can the Minister tell me what progress has been made in the past few months to get to a sustainable management of soil by 2030?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

Like the noble Baroness, I saw that clip—at least I think it was the same one—and it is horrible to see this natural capital being swept into a river system, where it can clog up that environment or just disappear out to sea. What are we doing about it? These events will always happen and there will always be some movement of soil when a month’s rain falls in one and a half days, as happened in some areas. But we are working hard to make sure that we fulfil our commitment on sustainable soils. One example of the many that I could give is the new actions we have announced under the sustainable farming incentive, which will see farmers rewarded for planting species of deep tap-rooting legumes and certain grasses to make sure that they stabilise soils and get them to function like the proper ecosystems they should be. Farmers are being rewarded for moving to a regenerative system of agriculture that protects topsoil.