Flooding

Debate between Emma Hardy and Andrew Snowden

Monday 6th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Emma Hardy]

I am really sorry to hear about the hon. Lady’s constituents facing such an incredibly unfair situation for anybody to have to deal with. That is why the fact that sustainable drainage systems and schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 that we brought in were never enacted is so important, and that is why we are looking at that now, because there need to be adequate drainage systems in new designs. That should have been in place since 2010, but the previous Government did not enact it. This Government are serious about getting on with it.

[Mr Andrew Snowden (Fylde) (Con)]

I echo the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking): although I am incredibly grateful to a lot of frontline workers from the Environment Agency and elsewhere for the work they have done to keep houses and businesses safe, we have not always seen the best of the EA as an organisation. Councillor Tommy Threlfall, our cabinet member, and other community members and business owners were desperately trying to get hold of someone at the Environment Agency while all the fields around Main Drain were flooding and not one of the pumps at Lytham pumping station was active, as there was about to be a high tide into the low, flat lands the Minister referred to, which are at the tail end of the risk of flooding as the water moves downstream. What is the Minister going to do to help local communities better engage with agencies such as the EA in the midst of flooding, to get real-time information into the organisation and, most importantly, to get it acted upon to keep businesses and residences safe?

[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.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Emma Hardy and Andrew Snowden

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Emma Hardy]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The previous Government left flood defences in a state of disrepair—the worst state on record—leaving 60,000 homes exposed. That is why this Government will invest £2.4 billion into defences over the next two years.

[Mr Andrew Snowden (Fylde) (Con)]

In Fylde, a number of new housing developments over the years have been constructed in flood areas where the developers knew that the construction sites had flooded, yet they still sold properties without disclosing that to buyers, and in some circumstances they had not constructed the flood defence requirements—the mitigations on site—to spec. Both residents and councils have felt powerless to get developers to correct what they should have got right in the first place, and a number of properties have flooded several times since people purchased them. What plans does the Minister have to give residents and councils more power to hold developers to account when they do not properly construct developments or disclose information about flooding?

[Emma Hardy]

I share the hon. Gentleman’s upset about the rules on housing and flooding not being implemented by the previous Government. We need more sustainable urban drainage in more developments, and it is important that it is built into planning applications to begin with. If he would like to contact me, I can look into the matter in more detail for him.