Yorkshire: Sustainable Water Management Solutions

Debate between Lord Bishop of Sheffield and Baroness Hayman of Ullock

Wednesday 28th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, this Government are committed to supporting more sustainable water management, both locally and nationally. Specifically in Yorkshire, we are working with the Connected by Water partnership, which is looking at ways to manage water more sustainably to reduce flood risk and drought. A key part is the integrated floodwater management plan, which encourages sustainable drainage systems in new developments and collecting and reusing rainwater—and that includes treated wastewater—in order to reduce demand on water resources.

[The Lord Bishop of Sheffield]

I thank the Minister for her response. Noble Lords will be aware of the increased frequency and severity of flood events across the UK in recent years. Communities I serve in South Yorkshire are up to one-third more likely to experience flooding than the national average. Public First estimated last year that every pound spent on flood prevention saves £8 of costs in flood damage. So I warmly welcome the Government’s recent water White Paper, not least the section on infrastructure planning and development. I ask the Minister, however, what plans she and her colleagues across government have to include flood resilience measures in the Future Homes Standard.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Protecting homes is clearly very important. The national assessment of flood and coastal erosion risk, published in January last year, shows that around 6.3 million properties in England are at risk of flooding. With climate change, we believe that this could increase to 8 million. So this is a really important point, and I assure the right reverend Prelate that it is a government priority. If we are going to solve these problems, this is about not just Defra but us working with the MHCLG and more broadly across government. We are putting forward the largest flood and coastal erosion programme in history, with £2.65 billion to better protect properties by March this year. We have started completing those schemes, and we will keep investing in this. It is a priority.