Flood Defences (Thurnham, Lancashire)

Dan Rogerson Excerpts

Tuesday 29th October 2013 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dan Rogerson)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Streeter. I want to thank the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Eric Ollerenshaw) for giving us the opportunity to explore the issues. I also thank him for the way in which he has approached the subject. It would be too easy for a constituency MP to come here and say, “There’s a problem. What are you doing about it, Government?” He is doing that to a certain extent, but he is also saying that the people in the communities that he represents are very open to being a part of the solution and to working in partnership with the Government and the Environment Agency to achieve that. I welcome the role that he has played in bringing the sides together and ensuring that we have a helpful way forward, and I really mean that.

As a Member of Parliament representing a coastal constituency, I know exactly what the hon. Gentleman is talking about in terms of discussions on managing the coastline for the future. I represent, among many other communities, the village of Boscastle, where, as the hon. Gentleman might remember, there was a horrendous flood in 2004, which also affected communities in Crackington Haven and Canworthy Water. The issues of flooding are foremost in my mind both as a constituency MP and as a Minister with new responsibilities, which I am trying to carry out to the best of my ability.

The hon. Gentleman will be aware—in fact, he pointed to this—of the national scale of the challenge that we face on flood management. In England, one in six properties is at risk of flooding. By area, 11% of the country benefits from flood defences, including some of our most important commercial and economic centres. This includes 1.3 million hectares of agricultural land—a point that the hon. Gentleman made. The majority of the most versatile and productive farmland in England is in flood risk areas. The soil is often productive because it is in a river catchment, and it is very fertile, but it is intrinsically vulnerable to flooding.

Flood management supports the Government’s primary objective to deliver economic growth and build a stronger economy, and it remains a top priority for the Department. The Secretary of State and my predecessor have both been very clear about that commitment. Proof of our commitment to flood management can be seen in the announcement this summer on long-term capital settlement to improve flood management infrastructure. This announcement set out a record level of capital investment of more than £2.3 billion in the six years to 2021.

However, we are not only increasing capital expenditure; we are providing an above-inflation increase of £5 million for the Environment Agency’s flood maintenance work in 2015-16. That is very important for schemes such as the hon. Gentleman’s, which have been there for some time, and we need to maintain them for the next few decades. As he has outlined, there is a potential plan, but we cannot guarantee that beyond 30 years. That is not to say that we will walk away after 30 years, but we will come back to such issues as I continue my speech. Although we have made significant commitments, I know that the hon. Gentleman is aware of the need to contain public expenditure. Central Government funding is simply not sufficient to pay for everything that would be worth while to some degree in flood management. As a result, there will continue to be stiff competition for Government funding, and we must ensure that we get the best value for money for the taxpayers’ investment.

The Environment Agency’s capital programme currently provides an average of at least £8 of benefits in damages avoided for every pound invested in construction of defences. However, the benefits realised are in fact even greater. Once the capital has been spent on construction, the routine maintenance of those defences can provide an even higher rate of return. The agency estimates an average benefit-cost ratio of 14 to 1 for its asset maintenance programme.

It is no longer the case that the Government fund only the cream of projects with the very best benefit-cost ratios, while leaving other worthwhile projects with nothing. In 2011, we introduced partnership funding to ensure that a fair portion of DEFRA funding can be made available for any worthwhile improvement scheme. That inevitably means that not all Government-funded schemes are fully funded. The new approach ensures that investment in flood management is not constrained by what the Government alone can afford, thereby increasing certainty and transparency on the level of DEFRA funding for projects, leveraging further investment towards worthwhile projects, allowing greater local ownership and choice, and encouraging more cost-effective solutions. That is just the approach that the hon. Gentleman’s constituents are keen to see.

So far, partnership funding has brought forward up to £148 million in external funding over the four years to 2015, compared with £13 million during the previous three years. That huge increase in match funding is helping those projects, which were perhaps slightly less attractive initially, into development.

Early indications suggest that up to 25% more schemes will go ahead in the coming years than if project costs were met by central Government alone. That is relevant to the hon. Gentleman’s case because a partnership approach is clearly needed to manage the flood risk in such areas. The work of the Environment Agency and other risk-management authorities in the shoreline management plan has highlighted that issue. Further hydraulic modelling and more detailed economic appraisal commissioned by the agency has clarified the fact that the most effective option is not managed realignment but maintaining the existing line of defences for as long as it is feasible to do so. We are then back to the cost of doing that beyond the 30-year period.

The defences will eventually need to be rebuilt. They can be patched for only so long, and it seems unlikely that central Government funding will be able to meet the full cost of those projects. The Environment Agency has told me that it estimates that the defences will need to be rebuilt at the end of that period. In the meantime, I understand that the agency’s recommended policy is to continue to maintain the defences, subject to the availability of funding.

I have already explained the priority the Government place on flood management and the resources they have secured to demonstrate that commitment. However, I cannot tell the hon. Gentleman what the funding situation will be in 30 years’ time. I have highlighted the competition that already exists for that funding. The geography of the area means that, although the maintenance and renewal of the defences is economic, the case for investment to improve the defences may not be so great as in some other areas, including areas elsewhere in his constituency that, as he points out, are about to receive significant investment. In such situations, the community cannot assume that the taxpayer will guarantee the full cost of maintaining and improving the defences, so there will need to be a partnership. Any local arrangements that reduce the cost of maintaining and improving the defences, or raise contributions from other sources, will help to deliver that.

The Environment Agency is undertaking local discussions on how best to manage flood risk, including the residual risks if flooding does occur. I ask only that the hon. Gentleman encourages all interests to work together, as he is clearly doing.

The hon. Gentleman has highlighted a number of solutions suggested by the community. His first question was on why areas are considered separately. Bluntly, it is because there are different risks in different areas. Some flood risks are linked to river catchments, and some are connected to topography and its interaction with the sea, so there are a number of solutions for different areas. Cost-benefit ratios have to be considered in relation to the number of families and homes at risk. All of those things are considered alongside each other, so they are not held entirely in isolation. We have to consider individual schemes. In Thurnham, of course, there is an existing defence, which highlights the fact that we are looking at a particular catchment in relative isolation.

There are still many internal drainage boards doing great work across the country. They are established and have set procedures and set ways of bringing in the revenue they need to carry out the work that they want to do. We are very supportive of projects and innovation, so we have allowed seven pilots to proceed in which the maintenance of watercourses will be considered. The internal drainage boards and farmers are keen on that, and we will look at how those pilots go.

The hon. Gentleman’s constituency has a coastal situation. There may be a solution that we can move towards, although we will have to consider how that model might work in his case. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has previously said that he is happy for there to be new internal drainage boards if needed, so long as we are sure that they fit the circumstances that the hon. Gentleman describes.

On the “floating fund” that the hon. Gentleman excellently outlines, it would be positive to see the community taking steps to prepare for what might happen in 30 years’ time. He has asked me to contact colleagues in the Department for Communities and Local Government to consider what might be the best mechanism to achieve that, and I am happy to do so because we want to overcome any barriers to the local community starting that fund so that the contributions can begin to be built up ready for such an eventuality.

I will continue to ensure that flood management remains a priority and that Government resources are used to the best possible effect. We will continue to bear down on costs and to press the Environment Agency and other risk management authorities to look for better ways of working within available budgets. That will, however, need to be in partnership with local communities, such as those that the hon. Gentleman so ably represents today.

DEFRA is working to remove unnecessary burdens that might discourage farmers and landowners who want to undertake their own maintenance, and there may well be other approaches, too. On 14 October we launched seven watercourse maintenance pilots, and we will consider whether they achieve the outcomes hoped for by the IDBs in those areas. One of those pilots is in the Alt Crossens area of Lancashire, which is particularly relevant to the hon. Gentleman. He may wish to look at what is happening there.

Nationally, the Environment Agency is working with the National Farmers Union and other partners to improve communications and guidance for farmers who wish to undertake their own maintenance. Although I am focusing on those challenges, I do not underplay what is being achieved now and what could be achieved in future both in rural and urban areas. The agency is currently maintaining more than 97% of flood defence assets in high-risk areas in the required condition. Those defences help to protect more than 1.6 million properties and the vast majority of the most productive and versatile agricultural land.

Capital projects in the DEFRA-funded national programme completed in the past two years have provided improved flood protection to more than 150,000 hectares of farmland, as well as improving protection for more than 100,000 households. Protecting households and farmland from the risk of flooding underpins the Government’s priorities of delivering economic growth and building a stronger economy, and I am happy to work with the hon. Gentleman to deliver that.