Water Quality: Sewage Discharge

David Davis Excerpts

Tuesday 25th April 2023 Commons Chamber

That this House calls on the Government to set a target for the reduction of sewage discharges, to provide for financial penalties in relation to sewage discharges and breaches of monitoring requirements, and to carry out an impact assessment of sewage discharges.

[Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con)]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. A little while ago, when Peter Tatchell came to visit me, he had a badge confiscated from him—a campaigning badge against homophobia. I subsequently received a letter of apology from the Serjeant at Arms saying that he would look at that practice. Yesterday, some other people came to visit me. They had a series of leaflets about the Chinese Government’s treatment of Jimmy Lai, and those were confiscated too. There may well be a well-intentioned purpose behind this, but will the House authorities look at the operation of these rules, because it seems very odd that it is illegal to bring political material into the House of Commons.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

I thank the right hon. Member for his point of order. I will raise this issue with the Serjeant at Arms tomorrow, and I will get back in touch with him.

Waste Industry: Criminality and Regulation

David Davis Excerpts

Tuesday 1st February 2022 Westminster Hall

[Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con)]

The right hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones) has made half the case, from my point of view.

In my constituency, over 10 years ago, a company called City Plant took over an existing site. It broke the rules time and time again throughout the first five years, and eventually ended up in the court. It got a slap on the wrist, and broke the rules time and time again thereafter. It still seems that City Plant is up to its old tricks. Residents today report a mix of materials being brought on to the site, which is not what has been agreed and is a repeat of other examples. They report noxious odours across the entire area and the destruction of their enjoyment of life, because of the pursuit of illegal profits.

As the right hon. Member said, the people benefitting from the weakness of the Environment Agency are not small-time crooks. They are hardened criminals at the heart of the criminal underworld. He mentioned Niramax, which we have already heard about. The majority shareholder he referred to, Neil Elliott, is serving 15 years for murder. An associate, Shaun Morfitt, previously a part-owner of Niramax, is currently serving 18 years for drug trafficking offences and, prior to that, served over six years for a vicious machete attack. These are the sort of people we are dealing with.

Tax evasion in this industry is enormously costly. The right hon. Member gave the figure of £78 million, but I think the expected bill went up to £158 million. Some 14 individuals were arrested, yet the outcome was nothing but a few thousand pounds paid over. We need to know why this has happened, and why the state has no teeth in the protection of the lives of ordinary people and the collection of proper taxes from these criminals in these unpleasant industries.

Avian Influenza

David Davis Excerpts

Monday 17th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

The most immediate thing that we are focusing on—bear in mind that we were initially notified about the issue on Friday—is trying to nip the disease in the bud to make sure that it has the minimum possible impact. That is why it is important to take very urgent action.

[Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con)]

From what the Secretary of State says, the responses of the farmer, the vet and the agencies were exemplary in both their swiftness and decisiveness. The suggestion that this outbreak has come from wild bird infection reminds us that east Yorkshire is part of a migratory network, as is much of the rest of the United Kingdom. What will she do to ensure that there is clear surveillance of areas subject to bird migration so that this cannot happen again?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is one of the possibilities that the chief veterinary officer is exploring. He is meeting the ornithological expert panel to look specifically at the migratory patterns of wild birds, which might be one of the factors. It is still early days, and we do not fully know the cause. His job is to investigate that, and he is working very hard on it.

Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy

David Davis Excerpts

Tuesday 1st July 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. Although I have been fortunate enough to secure the debate, the interests of other Members in the Chamber are at least as great as mine, so I will be as brief as I can. I will try to limit my contribution on this important matter to 15 minutes.

On 5 December last year, news around the world was dominated by the death of Nelson Mandela. The death of the greatest statesman in modern history rightly dominated all news coverage, as his achievements and legacy were celebrated. An unfortunate side effect of that was that it almost totally eclipsed one of the most serious tidal flooding events to hit the United Kingdom for more than half a century.

The tidal surge that hit the east coast of England that night was devastating. The floodwater overtopped more than 40 km of flood defences, and the Hull tidal barrier was inches away from being defeated. Had that happened, a significant part of the city would have been flooded, and thousands upon thousands of homes would have been rendered uninhabitable, causing misery for tens of thousands of people. In the event, although that did not happen, more than 1,100 properties in the area were flooded, which was still a miserable consequence for the families and businesses involved. The event was devastating, with the highest water levels ever recorded in the Humber, and we were fortunate that no one was seriously hurt or killed. When there was a similar but lesser tidal surge in 1953, more than 300 people in the east of England died.

For the people most closely affected, the flood has been a living nightmare. Warnings were not given in time, and in some cases alarms sounded only after the floodwater had inundated people’s homes. Across the Humber, most warnings were received only an hour before the waters rose. Those who were affected had no time to prepare and were forced to abandon their homes and their dearest possessions to the elements. They subsequently faced a living hell of temporary accommodation, not knowing when they would be able to move back into their own homes.

In the East Riding alone, 200 homes and nearly 50 business properties were flooded, and 15 miles of roads were submerged, which led to communities in my constituency being completely cut off. Blacktoft, Yokefleet, Saltmarsh and Faxfleet became virtual islands, and residents unsurprisingly felt abandoned and isolated. People in those remote villages were either evacuated while there was time or forced to abandon the ground floor of their own houses. They gathered what they could upstairs, but they were powerless to prevent the torrent of floodwater and debris from entering. For much of the time they were in complete darkness, because the power went as well. Some of them are pensioners, who moved to the area for a quiet and happy retirement only to see everything that they have worked for destroyed.

One respondent to a survey conducted by the local council had been informed that “Blacktoft never floods”, because of the defences, but in this case the defences simply were not good enough. Of course, defences that were perfectly adequate 25 years ago are not necessarily adequate today. In 2012, I asked the then Minister responsible, my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon), how many homes in my constituency were at risk of flooding, and he replied that from 2008 to 2012 the number of properties at risk had increased by 1,000. That illustrates the fact that with sea levels rising, if defences are not improved, that figure is certain to grow.

[Mr Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend rightly paints a picture of the devastation that occurred in December last year. Does he recognise that if the timing had been different by a couple of hours and if the wind direction had been different, the devastating event that we are talking about could have been catastrophic and caused major loss of human life?

[Mr Davis]

I think my hon. Friend has read the next page of my speech, as happens so often. He is absolutely right, and there were a number of coincidences that could be described as fortunate, although it may seem odd to describe the events of December last year as such. Had the tidal surge coincided with the astronomical tide—he is right to say that the difference was two hours—the event would have been much bigger. Had there been the levels of rainfall that we saw in 2007, the Aire, Calder, Ouse, Derwent and Trent rivers, which all feed the Humber, would have been fuller. The Humber would have started from a higher level, and I suspect that the Hull tidal defences would have been overtopped and defeated. If that had happened, we would have seen a similar picture to that in the Somerset levels, where the land was flooded for weeks, if not months afterwards. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that had we not been fortunate with the other events besides the tidal surge, we would have faced a much bigger catastrophe, and the events of 5 December could have included fatal incidents. The situation would have been at least as bad as it was in the Somerset levels, but with the difference that there would have been three international ports and a city of 256,000 people in the middle of it all.

The danger is real. As all hon. Members present know, we have had serious flooding in the region twice in less than a decade—in 2007 and 2013—with other serious localised flooding in 2011. The Humber represents the second highest flood risk in the country, behind only the Thames estuary. The national risk register considers tidal flood, which is what we face, to be second in severity only to an influenza pandemic. That is the scale of the threat facing the region.

The economic case for action is clear, given the strategic importance of the region to the rest of the country. Local authorities have worked incredibly well together on the matter, completely ignoring party, regional or geographic differences. Using the Treasury guidelines for such calculations, they have identified £32 billion of potential damage, which includes straightforward damage, lost productivity, increased insurance costs and deterred investment.

The economic value that is at risk includes several industries of significant strategic importance. The Humber is vital to the UK power industry, and the pressure put on the UK power network by a major flood event of the type that is predicted to occur in the next 50 years would be colossal. In addition, 28% of the UK’s oil refining capacity is situated in the Humber floodplain, and the loss of such capacity could not be made up by shifting demand to other plants. That is an important point, because it underpins one of the criteria that the Treasury uses to assess such things. It is often assumed that if an industry is at risk, it can go somewhere else, but that is not the case in the Humber.

Oil and gas terminals in the region process 30% of the country’s gas demands. More than 30% of the UK’s coal and an increasing amount of biomass fuel lands at Humber ports and is transferred to power stations such as Drax, Eggborough and Ferrybridge on road and rail routes that are also at risk from flooding. The chemicals industry in the region is enormous, amounting to more than £6 billion. Altogether, more than 20,000 businesses in the Humber are at risk from flooding, and the area contributes some £15 billion to the nation’s economy.

That all makes the Humber a national strategic asset, and rising sea levels mean that the next flood risk to that asset is not merely some distant probability. It is not something that just might happen. In the next 50 years, if we do not enhance our defences, there will be a costly and probably fatal catastrophe. Given the region’s vulnerability and the number of people under threat, it is past time for action to be taken to deal with the flood risk. By comparison, London, where the Thames floodplain has the highest flood risk in the country, is protected from events on a one-in-1,000-year basis. To achieve that, the Thames flood barrier was built between 1974 and 1982 at a cost of about £534 million, with an additional £100 million of investment around it to make it work. It is hard to assess accurately, but in today’s money that would be equivalent to more than £3 billion.

What we are discussing today would cost a lot of money. For the Humber, we are talking about £888 million, but that would still be significantly less than a third—perhaps less than a quarter—of the spend on the Thames barrier, which I do not think anyone disputes was an absolute necessity and an act of serious foresight by the Government of the day. With those figures in mind, the people of the East Riding, north Lincolnshire and Hull will rightly ask questions if the Government do not take action to improve the region’s defences.

Once it is understood that the Humber represents a national strategic asset, it becomes clear that any system of flood defences must address all risk across the entire estuary. On both banks of the river, the floodplain is very flat, and some of it is even reclaimed land—using for the first time in Britain what were then innovative Dutch techniques, Vermuyden drained Hatfield Chase, which is now in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy). Because the land is so flat and low-lying, it is impossible to separate any part of the defences from another. We cannot ring-fence the major population centres of Hull, Grimsby or Scunthorpe; we must deal with the problem as a single entity.

As Vermuyden’s involvement demonstrates, our area is in many ways as close to Holland as it gets in England. The Dutch do not do flood defences by halves, and neither should we. Perhaps we should reapply the lessons we learned from Vermuyden some centuries ago. To that end, the Environment Agency prepared the Humber flood risk management strategy in 2008 with the aim of improving the defences in the Humber, most of which dated back to the 1950s following the previous flood surge. The surge of last winter showed that the defences were inadequate and gave the agency new information that it is using to inform a comprehensive update to the strategy, with the aim of bringing defences up to such a standard that they could survive not a one-in-1,000-year event, like London, but a one-in-200-year event—that is the colloquialism, but it really means an event the probability of which occurring is 0.5% per annum.

The scheme is ambitious and will require co-operation across local and national Government, across party lines and across the north and south banks of the Humber. Much of that consensus has already been achieved: the agencies, local government, the local enterprise partnership and Members of Parliament have all acted completely without attention to narrow self-interest and with serious concern about the overall interest.

In the next 50 years it is highly likely that we will see a tidal surge event similar in magnitude to the one we experienced last winter, but worse in consequence. Factoring in the possibility of even less favourable conditions and rising sea levels, it is clear that the next major flood event could be devastating. There could be a serious threat to life and more than £32 billion of economic impact. It is not a doomsday event with an outside chance of happening; it is likely to happen at some point in the next half century. We were lucky to escape that outcome last year. If we do not act by implementing the Humber flood risk strategy, there is a serious risk of such a catastrophe being repeated.

Governments of all colours—Tory, Labour, coalition or whatever—find it difficult to take more than a five-year view, for obvious reasons; when it comes to flood defences, it is necessary to take at least a 50-year view, if not a multi-century one. We must start work on a programme that will take at least 10 years to complete. Yes, the numbers are enormous and run into billions of pounds, but the cost of doing nothing would be far greater in the long run. On 5 December 2013 we were given a timely warning—one might say God-given—of the consequences of inaction. We would do well to pay attention to it.

I will not be shocked if the Minister has not turned up with £900 million for us in his back pocket—I will be disappointed, but not shocked. Nevertheless, we must recognise that we are faced with a conjunction of several things: a major risk that we know is going to get worse; a historic demonstration of the harm of that risk if it is ever realised; and a clear strategic asset that is at risk in terms of industry, economy, links to the outside world and, most importantly, the hundreds of thousands of people of the area. Because it will take so long to carry out the necessary improvements and enhancements to the defences, it is vital that the Government take a strategic view in both direction and money.

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[Andrew Percy]

That is an interesting idea. I think that we would all prefer it if farmers were allowed to continue producing food, but my right hon. Friend raises one of the biggest criticisms of the current funding regime: the value placed on agricultural land is not sufficient. I am not against flood alleviation projects—of course not—and that includes the sacrificing of land at Alkborough flats in my constituency. That operated very well and possibly lowered water levels in the Trent to such an extent that it prevented a couple of communities from flooding. We do not have a problem with some of these schemes, in appropriate areas. What we have a problem with is the value placed on agricultural land and rural communities generally under the current system. In the original drafts of the various flood catchment plans for our area, there seemed to be a policy of retreat and sacrifice of rural areas. That has abated somewhat through various processes, for which we are very grateful.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden and others, including the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson), have highlighted the nationally important infrastructure in our area and the national risk register. In my constituency, to add to the list of nationally important infrastructure that we all seem to be trotting out today, there is of course the port of Goole, which is England’s busiest and biggest inland port. We also have the power station at Keadby, which of course was one of the communities flooded in December. There is the Drax power station just across the way, and biomass imports come through my constituency via the railway lines. My hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers) talked about petrochemicals, and of course we have the motorway and rail infrastructure and agricultural land. I believe that 55% to 60% of our land is grade A agricultural land, so it is some of the most productive land in the country.

We have mentioned the Isle of Axholme, but of course the defences along the Trent and the Ouse do not just protect the 50,000 acres and 20,000 residents there. They are also major defences for Doncaster and Thorne. A catastrophic breach of those defences would have a significant impact on Doncaster, but although that is sometimes taken into account, it is not always accounted for in funding decisions.

[Mr David Davis]

May I draw my hon. Friend’s attention to something that has not been mentioned so far? Even though residential accommodation is given the highest score in the ranking, that is based on property value. One thing that works against the north of England is that properties there tend to be of lower value, which leads to a cyclical effect: the house is cheaper, so it gets less defence and therefore gets cheaper. It feeds on its own poverty. Does my hon. Friend agree that that has a distorting impact on flood defence funding?

[Andrew Percy]

Absolutely. I want to talk about the problems and failings in the current system, but before I do—I do not want to be entirely negative—I will praise the Government. The response in my area after the December surge was welcome. We appreciated the flood repair and renewal grants, and the support for business has been well received. Also, additional Government funding since December has been of particular benefit to my area: a £5 million scheme to raise the banks at Reedness has been approved, as has £3 million to shore up the banks at Snaith, and work will begin in a month’s time to shore up the banks at Burringham, which were not breached but were severely damaged.

Managing Flood Risk

David Davis Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Miss McIntosh]

My right hon. Friend makes a powerful point. I do not wish to detain the House too long, but I shall come on to look at that. The Government and the Minister have an opportunity to elaborate on this, but the House must be persuaded of the contribution that private bodies can make. The Select Committee has not been persuaded of that. Personally, I think that there are huge opportunities for water companies, but we need to amend the 2014 pricing review to allow that, so it would be useful to have an update. In addition, I should like to know whether the Minister believes that insurance companies will step up to the plate regarding infrastructure spending.

[Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con)]

Although I understand entirely the argument about multiple sources of funding for many flood defences, some major defences—most obviously, in my case, and in the case of my hon. Friends the Members for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) and for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart), the Humber defences—are strategic and, by definition, have to be carried out by a major strategic authority. Under those circumstances, the 1:8 rule and the requirement for other funding do not work. Does my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Miss McIntosh) accept that strategic intervention should take place on a different scale?

[Miss McIntosh]

My right hon. Friend brings me to the core of my opening remarks.

We could argue the whole afternoon about how much each side has paid in capital funding over the past two strategic reviews. That argument over capital expenditure is worth having, to the extent that that expenditure has increased, but the Committee on Climate Change—I am sure that the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner) will rehearse this—concluded that we have to spend some £20 million a year extra. The kernel of the argument is how we define revenue and how we define maintenance expenditure. We do not completely understand where the money is being spent.

Flooding (Hull)

David Davis Excerpts

Tuesday 13th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Diana R. Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

I am very pleased to have secured this Adjournment debate this evening, three years after the flooding in Hull in 2007 that caused such havoc for my constituents. I remind the House that the flooding in Hull was caused by surface water flooding, that one in five homes were flooded, and that June 2007 was the wettest month recorded in Yorkshire since 1882.

I first pay tribute to all the local services in Hull that worked so hard for my constituents on the day of the flooding and in the months and years that followed. Many issues pertaining to the flooding are outstanding, but tonight, because of the limited time, I wish to explore just three. The first is the progress that has been made so far on legislation and new policy directions. The second is insurance. Thirdly, I will seek reassurance from the Minister about future funding for flood protection measures in my constituency.

I thought it right to start by examining the coalition agreement to see what the Government have to say about their plans for flooding protection. It states clearly:

“We will take forward the findings of the Pitt Review to improve our flood defences, and prevent unnecessary building in areas of high flood risk.”

I was pleased that Hull was quick off the mark after the floods and had a report produced by Professor Tom Coulthard at Hull university. We then had the national Pitt review. It is to the credit of the previous Labour Government that all 92 recommendations in the review were accepted and many implemented in the provisions of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. I seek reassurance from the Minister that those provisions will be implemented as soon as possible. I also seek information about the possibility of the new coalition Government producing a water White Paper in the near future.

One of Pitt’s clear recommendations was on surface water management plans, suggesting that local authorities should become responsible for ensuring that arrangements were in place to assess and manage local flood risk from all sources, including surface water, and for developing a surface water management plan.

[Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing an Adjournment debate on this extremely important issue. Does she agree that the first stage of water management is to ensure that we avoid building not only on floodplains—I think that that is a common view—but anywhere where it will lead to the blocking of a watercourse or an increased risk of houses flooding?

[Diana R. Johnson]

The right hon. Gentleman is exactly right, and I believe there is support for that view throughout the House.

The surface water management plan in Hull, which will have an impact on the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency, will bring together the East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull city council, Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency to put together a workable plan. A scoping exercise was undertaken, and the previous Government provided £250,000 to develop the plan further. This summer there will be consultation, including on an aqua green in my constituency in the Orchard Park and Greenwood area, adjacent to the Cottingham area, which the right hon. Gentleman represents. I understand that the aqua green, alongside the other provisions set out in the consultation, would cost about £20 million to implement across the city. I seek reassurance from the Minister tonight about the future of that funding.

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

I congratulate the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana R. Johnson) on securing this debate and on raising a number of points that I shall endeavour to answer as best I can. She and I both contributed to Sir Michael Pitt’s review, because we both represent constituencies that suffered from flooding and surface water flooding. I therefore understand entirely, as she will, the experience for those households affected; we probably both spent time in the days after those awful floods wading through houses that had been destroyed and meeting people whose lives had been completely turned upside down by the devastation. We were all impressed at the time by her concern for her constituents—a point echoed again this evening.

Let me address one point directly before I address any others. We have no plans to privatise flood defences, contrary to what was reported in the press today. That is not to say that we will not be looking, where appropriate, for contributions from beneficiaries to new schemes and other sorts of levy-funded operations, which we have discussed in the House in recent days and weeks, but I am happy to reassure the hon. Lady on her point as best I can.

The events of summer 2007 illustrated just how important the issues of flood management really are. Floods destroy homes and businesses, and pose serious risks to life. I know that the people of Hull understand that better than most, as do my constituents who suffered in the floods of that year. It remains the case that Kingston upon Hull and the surrounding areas have the greatest concentration of people and property at risk from flooding outside London.

Floods often happen quickly. The damage that they cause can take years to put right and, for those affected, can leave a lasting legacy of concern about it happening again. I am sure that the hon. Lady will have had the same experience as me, in that when there is heavy rain, the level of stress and trauma among our constituents who have been previously affected rises. We are only just starting to understand the implications that that has for people.

We often refer to extreme rainfall in terms of millimetres, but when we read about 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools of rain falling on Hull per second, the seriousness of the emergency becomes clear for all to see. It is therefore no surprise that Hull was the worst affected city in 2007, with 100 millimetres of rain in 24 hours, leading to the overwhelming of drainage systems and the flooding of 600 streets, nearly 9,000 homes, 1,300 businesses and more than 90% of the city’s schools. Nor is it surprising that the 2007 floods, which affected many areas, led to the largest recovery effort since the second world war. Specific recovery funding was provided by the previous Administration, and a successful UK application was made to the EU social fund. However, recovery on such a scale takes time. The previous Government took their last count in June 2009, at which time 48 households in Hull were still wholly or partly displaced from their homes.

The hon. Lady asked about the water White Paper. We will publish it in the summer of next year, and I very much hope that she will give us her thoughts on how it can be taken forward. It will look at a number of related issues, including, principally, the Walker and Cave reports, but if she feels that it should cover issues such as surface water flooding, I am certainly open to suggestions. I cannot answer her question on small grants now, but I can assure her that I will write to her and that I will see what can be done. I completely agree that very small grants—for air bricks, for example—can make a big difference when dealing with the technology of flood prevention. We want to encourage people to take responsibility for their own homes.

[Mr David Davis]

May I just ask the Minister a practical question? If he is going to write to the hon. Lady, could he write to everyone in east Yorkshire?

[Richard Benyon]

I can assure my right hon. Friend that I will certainly include him in the circulation of any such letter.

We all know that flooding happens, and that we cannot prevent it. Houses will get flooded. That is why the Government are determined to act on the hard lessons of past events, and why we have already made it clear that DEFRA’s priorities under the coalition Government will include taking forward the findings of the Pitt review to improve our flood defences and prevent the unnecessary building in areas of high flood risk.

No one can have any doubt about the coalition Government’s focus on deficit reduction, and DEFRA has already made a significant contribution to the savings that must be made in the current financial year. Flood management makes up a big proportion of the Department’s budget, but immunity from the new financial disciplines is simply not possible. Despite those financial pressures, however, we have decided that we should maintain an increase in the money that taxpayers spend on flood defences this year. Thoughtful planning will mean that that will not impact on the number of households that we protect. We will continue with that thoughtful planning in our work on what is, as everyone knows, a necessarily challenging strategic expenditure review process. Indeed, that is already happening.

One issue that we must take forward in that context—it is one that is important to the people of Hull and the surrounding area—is insurance. I recently met representatives of the Association of British Insurers to discuss how we could work together to ensure that we have a way forward on flood insurance and a road map to 2013, when the current agreement between the Government and the insurance industry, known as the statement of principles, ends. I am confident that the partnership that we have built with the ABI will help to ensure that appropriate and fair successor arrangements are in place after 2013.

On insurance, it is a matter of great regret that many of the people who are offered access to the cheap schemes often provided through local authorities or housing associations choose not to access them. I have raised this matter with the ABI and with housing associations, and I will continue to raise it across government if I have to. When such schemes can be included as part of people’s rent, I believe that there is a case for offering them as an opt-out, rather than an opt-in scheme. I know of a housing association that offers £5,000-worth of household insurance for 50p a week. It is perfectly possible for people to make a rational choice on this if they are given the necessary information. I think that an opt-out would be better than an opt-in, but that is a personal view. I shall, however, take the matter up with the ABI.

The hon. Lady talked about information being made available to insurers, and that is a crucial point. The Environment Agency is the guardian of the data on surface water management plans, and it is important that that information should be passed on to insurers. I have had exactly the same experience as the hon. Lady, where insurers just say that a house has been flooded, and as far as the insurance company or broker is concerned, no distinction is made between surface or fluvial water, or between whether any or a lot of remedial action has taken place. My local authority is the guardian of that information at the moment. I want the Environment Agency to be absolutely up front—there are no secrets. In fact, we want to make public the work that government in all its forms is doing, so let us make sure that the Environment Agency makes that data available as soon as possible, so that insurance can access it. I am completely with the hon. Lady on that.