"Last week’s Budget papers assume that significant tax revenues will be generated by new drilling at the Rosebank oil field. Although I understand it is common practice to rely on these sorts of projections, are the Government not worried that this signals that they have already made a decision on …..." Ellie Chowns - View Speech
"Absolutely, and that is a point I will return to later in my speech. There is a huge benefit-cost ratio for early investment in flood resilience—it pays back many times over.
Let us recognise the scale of the challenge that we face: 6.3 million properties across the UK are already …..." Ellie Chowns - View Speech
"The hon. Member makes an excellent point that I was about to make myself. Natural flood management has got to be a core element of our response to flood risk. I have met families who have gone through the ordeal of seeing their homes flooded time and again.
"Once again, the hon. Member’s point is that as we face increasing frequency and severity of floods, existing problems are going to become worse, so we need to invest to protect communities against that. Investment early is going to be cheaper than paying the costs in the long run...." Ellie Chowns - View Speech
"My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. The Government have a crucial role to play in supporting farmers to put in place the measures that are so helpful for our long-term resilience and have many wider community benefits too.
"I am always in favour of Government making it easier for local authorities to unlock funding, as well as Government providing more funding to enable the good things, like natural flood management, to happen.
To finish my point on the flood recovery framework, will the Minister look again at whether …..." Ellie Chowns - View Speech
"The hon. Gentleman’s point about co-ordination between agencies is absolutely crucial; it is another point that I will be coming to in my speech. This is an issue that crosses boundaries, because river catchments do not respect administrative or sectoral boundaries. We need to have a fully joined-up approach.
"I am sorry, but I am going to finish as we are short of time.
The responsibility of Government is not simply to respond to flooding after it happens, but to build the resilience our communities will need in a rapidly warming climate. The question is whether the Government are …..." Ellie Chowns - View Speech
"Not long after my election in 2024, I received an email from a father of three whose home had been flooded for the second time in five years. He wrote:
“The increasing uncertainty in the weather caused by global warming only increases the flood risk in the immediacy—and in future, …..." Ellie Chowns - View Speech
"On 14 October, the UN’s international commission of inquiry on the OPT and Israel published its latest report. I quote paragraph 43, which concludes that
“Israeli military operations in the West Bank since 7 October 2023 constitute a course of conduct that forms part of a widespread and systematic attack …..." Ellie Chowns - View Speech