Flooding

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Monday 6th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Emma Hardy]

If the hon. Gentleman has not had the experience he needs with the Environment Agency, I am happy to take up that issue. An hon. Friend mentioned a good idea on the call last Friday: issuing an emergency flood pack to MPs containing all the details and information of who to contact and when. Members would then have that information when they needed it and be able to get hold of people exactly at the point they needed to do so. That issue has come out, especially with it happening over new year’s eve. People and the EA were out there working, but we have to make sure we have that communication. That is so incredibly important. I am thinking through different ways I can improve communication, but I will make sure that the area manager gets in contact with the hon. Gentleman.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

Many of my constituents have been affected by flooding overnight, but it has been particularly bad in Horley, where for the second time in recent months people’s homes have been flooded by raw sewage. Will the Minister meet me to discuss what can be done to hold Thames Water to account in operating its sewage works—particularly in the light of several new housing developments in the area, which will make the problem even worse—and to stop it dumping raw sewage in my residents’ homes?

[Emma Hardy]

That is a horrific experience, and I am so sorry that those people have had to deal with that. I will meet the hon. Gentleman. It is so important we have that £88 billion of investment to improve infrastructure and to upgrade the water system, so that we do not keep having horrific incidents, such as the one he mentions.