Flooding

Debate between Lord Pickles and Richard Ottaway

Wednesday 26th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

In a moment.

The repair and renewal grant will top up any money that is received from insurers to ensure that flood resilience is built into homes and businesses as they are repaired. We are providing support for local businesses to give them the breathing space that they need to recover from the flooding. All affected businesses will get 100% business rate relief for three months.

[Sir Richard Ottaway]

Will the Secretary of State give way?

[Mr Pickles]

I will in a moment.

Businesses will have extra time to pay other business taxes that they owe to the taxman while they get back on their feet. We have announced a separate business support scheme that is worth up to £10 million for small and medium-sized firms in flood risk areas. We are helping farmers who have been affected by the flooding and severe weather to get their businesses back on track as soon as possible. A new £10 million farming recovery fund has been set up to help local farmers that have been directly affected and to meet the short-term costs as the flood waters recede.

We are building infrastructure resilience into our railways and roads, including through a £31 million scheme to deliver 10 rail projects that will improve resilience against flooding.

[Sir Richard Ottaway]

The Secretary of State will know from his visit to my constituency that a number of businesses that were not flooded were affected by the floods. Will he confirm that the compensation package that he has just announced will apply to those businesses, even though they were not flooded?

[Mr Pickles]

Certainly part of the amount that I have just announced with regard to businesses will be, although the rate rebate will not be available. This is perhaps a good opportunity for me to apologise to my right hon. Friend because I am afraid my office did not inform him of my visit to his constituency, which was made at short notice. I deeply regret that because he is a most diligent constituency MP, and I know he had been at the site the previous day. That was a good example of how adaptable firefighters have been: the use of the underpass as a balancing pool was a work of absolute genius, and it undoubtedly saved that important pumping station.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Pickles and Richard Ottaway

Monday 17th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

I do not recall the hon. Gentleman making those points about the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which contained a much smaller number of clauses and yet had 87 pieces of regulation. What we are doing is entirely necessary to liberate local government from the hand of central Government and is deregulatory by nature. As a friend of local government, he should be congratulating us and perhaps showing some contrition for his failure over the 2007 Act.

[Richard Ottaway (Croydon South) (Con)]

2. How many local authorities have published details of their spending online to date.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)]

Our latest assessment is that at least 193 local authorities have published their spending data online to date. Another 10 are about to publish those data on their websites, but that figure is changing daily—pleasingly, upwards.

[Richard Ottaway]

I congratulate the Secretary of State on that initiative. As Parliament knows to its cost, transparency is the best way to restore confidence in Government, and for that matter in local government, but any policy must be judged by its outcomes. Is there any sign that that initiative has changed behaviour in any way in local government?

[Mr Pickles]

As my hon. Friend will know, my Department has published those figures, and that has certainly changed our attitude. There is no possibility that, as under our predecessors, we will order lots of expensive Parisian sofas, a peace pod or special, high-quality chocolates for the Secretary of State—Mrs Pickles is probably pleased about that. We recognise that we must account for every single penny.