Flood Risk and Flood Defence Infrastructure: North-west England

Jo Platt Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jo Platt (Leigh and Atherton) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington South (Sarah Hall) for securing the debate, which is so important, especially with the winter months approaching.

As we have just heard, in January the north-west faced floods of such ferocity that they took everyone by surprise. Across Manchester, Cheshire and the Wigan borough, homes and livelihoods were devastated. In Leigh and Atherton, the damage was significant. For residents near Lilford Park, it was the second time they had endured a major flood in less than 10 years. To experience such destruction twice in a decade is unacceptable, and it is no wonder that people are asking whether our flood resilience measures are truly fit for purpose.

I witnessed at first hand the disruption and devastation that flooding causes to people’s lives—possessions lost and communities shaken. In the aftermath, the focus has rightly been on recovery. I am grateful to the emergency services, which responded swiftly at the time. I want also to acknowledge the support of local councillors, Wigan council officers and local businesses that gave their time and resources to those impacted. I thank the Minister for visiting the area to meet residents. I know her commitment to this issue; she is steadfast in wanting to support communities in their time of need.

People have gone above and beyond to support our neighbours, and we must never forget that spirit of solidarity. However, we owe it to residents to reduce the risk of this happening again. Since the incident, I have been working with the council, the Environment Agency and United Utilities on flood risk management in our area, particularly in Lilford and Higher Folds. Following our section 19 report, the Environment Agency is undertaking modelling of the Leigh East catchment area, which is expected to be completed in the summer.

Planting trees and promoting biodiversity are absolutely worthwhile, but they cannot replace the urgent need for proper flood storage—that goes back to the comment that my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington South made earlier. We need solutions that deliver real protection. Preliminary work has already identified potential water storage areas further upstream, but they need safeguarding from development at least while modelling is completed.

When they are done responsibly, developments can assist with flood prevention, but it is imperative that they are not looked at in isolation. Incorporating sustainable drainage systems, such as attenuation ponds, can drastically reduce downstream flooding. While they may not appear necessary for each development, the benefits downstream must not be underestimated.

[Phil Brickell]

As my constituency neighbour, does my hon. Friend share the frustration that I and my Bolton West constituents sometimes have about identifying who is responsible for the existing infrastructure and its maintenance? For example, we struggle to understand whether United Utilities or the council is responsible for localised flooding by Old Station Park and on Chorley New Road in Horwich, or on Lostock Junction Lane, and the source of the flooding.

[Jo Platt]

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. As near neighbours, we share the same concerns. I do think that the Greater Manchester combined authority is leading on some really good work, pulling in all the agencies in order to work on the responsibilities of some of those partners, and we need to be part of that too.

We need decisive action now. Every household must be made flood-proof, not through quick fixes but through sustainable solutions that stand the test of time. That means that local and national policies must embed resilience at their core. Local authorities and the Environment Agency should be held accountable and given the resources to deliver.

Finally, I want to raise an issue that residents repeatedly bring to me. Many households find that insurance companies differ widely in the cover they offer for flood risk, leaving families vulnerable. What discussions has the Minister had with insurers and with the Build Back Better scheme to ensure fairness and consistency in cover for those affected?

Our community has shown strength in the face of adversity; now it is time for leadership to match that strength with action. We must build a future where homes are protected, families feel secure and flooding is no longer a recurring nightmare for Leigh and Atherton residents.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jo Platt Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)]

10. What steps he has taken to help protect communities that are vulnerable to flooding.

[Jo Platt (Leigh and Atherton) (Lab/Co-op)]

12. What steps he has taken to help protect communities that are vulnerable to flooding.

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

Repairing and rebuilding our flood defences is a priority for this Labour Government, and we are investing at a record level to improve flood resilience, better protecting 52,000 properties by this time next year.

[Emma Hardy]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this important issue. I completely agree that the previous flooding formula did not work for rural communities, which is exactly why we are consulting to change it. The consultation will be announced shortly, and I encourage him and every Member across the House to get involved in shaping the formula, so we can make sure it delivers the right outcomes for everybody up and down our country.

[Jo Platt]

First, I thank the Minister for visiting Lilford in Leigh after the devastating new year’s day flooding. We had a public meeting on Saturday, and three months after those floods, residents are still struggling to get any real progress from their insurance companies, while others face extortionate premiums and excess fees. What discussions is the Minister having with the insurance industry on improving how they support residents?

[Emma Hardy]

It was a pleasure to see my hon. Friend and see how tirelessly she was championing and supporting her local constituents after such a devastating flood. Concerns around flood insurance have been raised, so the floods resilience taskforce is setting up an insurance sub-group, through which some of its members will deep-dive into the challenges and opportunities for improvement on flood defences. If she has any further evidence that she would like me to look at, it would be very helpful to receive it.

Environment and Climate Change

Jo Platt Excerpts

Wednesday 1st May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Jo Platt (Leigh) (Lab/Co-op)]

As a planet and as a country, we stand at a crossroads. In the month of Extinction Rebellion, Greta Thunberg’s visit to our country, and countless emails and conversations with constituents, we must ask whether we will use those interventions as a much needed wake-up call to take the urgent action we need. Alternatively, will we just make more excuses to create further delay and brush our country’s future under the carpet once more?

We all agree that we need a cross-party approach to this crisis, but looking at this Government’s record I fear that they are leading us down the path of excuse and delay. They have banned onshore wind subsidies, they are axing Labour’s solar panel subsidies, and their attempts to reduce emissions have stalled.

Then we come to the Government’s fracking policy. Fracking is a dangerous, disruptive and disastrous method of fuelling our country. It extracts fossil fuels at the expense of our environment and our communities, and the environmental risks from fracking to former coalfield sites are clear, so in Leigh we have expressed our total opposition to it—it does not have our consent, and the Government should follow Labour’s lead and ban it.

In my constituency, the site of one former colliery is now a renowned 200-hectare country park and nature reserve, where over 230 species of bird have been identified. I suggest that sites such as that have been of greater benefit to our town than any fracking site could ever be. Rather than turning to the energy of old, we should be looking at how we reduce our emissions and help people to make greener choices. That starts with bringing railway stations back to our towns.

All this does not have to be burdensome; it can be full of hope, opportunity and positivity. But we must get on and act—the next generation is watching and judging.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act

Jo Platt Excerpts

Thursday 10th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Jo Platt (Leigh) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Vicky Ford), although I do not agree with her analysis. Next week, we are set finally to vote and make one of the most important decisions that this House has taken. It is a decision that will have enormous and lasting repercussions for our communities, our economy and our security.

Over the past few weeks, I have taken the time to reflect on this deal and what it would mean for the people of Leigh. My constituency is made up of post-industrial towns in the north, and the deal will particularly impact us because of the fragile social and economic landscape we face after the real hardship we have endured over the last few decades. With the decline of our manufacturing base and then austerity cutting to the bone, we have been left feeling isolated from the economic prosperity seen in some of our cities. We face higher than average unemployment, ballooning social issues on our streets and a social mobility crisis that threatens the life chances of our young people.

When I looked at this deal, I considered two points. First, does it respect the referendum result, in which the majority of my constituents voted to leave the EU? Also, crucially, does it deliver on the message my constituents sent and provide a blueprint for transformative and inclusive prosperity for all our communities that will help our towns to thrive and prosper once again? Looking through the deal and the political declaration, I can only conclude that, for three key reasons, this will be a bad deal for our constituency that will fail to deliver that foundation for the future.

First, the deal will not safeguard the existing jobs and businesses in the constituency. Without the assurance of a permanent customs union, our manufacturers in Leigh will be left with uncertainty and without an assurance of frictionless trade. We have seen before that when businesses and the economy take a hit, our town economies are the first to suffer. Secondly, the deal does not protect our workers’ rights. If we accept it, we risk the lowering of rights and standards by a future Tory Government. As a Labour MP, I cannot and will not vote for a deal that does not guarantee all our hard-fought rights and protections.

Thirdly, this deal does not protect our national security. Through my work in the shadow Cabinet Office team, I am well aware of the critical cyber risks facing our nation and of how much we rely on threat information from our European partners. It is simply not good enough to “aspire” to a close security relationship. Our national security needs concrete reassurances; it is not a bargaining chip.

Those are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my serious concerns about the deal. Representing a community in desperate need of transformative investment, there is no way I could support such a gamble. If the last 10 years have taught us anything in Leigh, it is that in times of struggle our post-industrial towns are the first to be hit. I cannot risk that for our community again.

It feels we have got nowhere in the last two years. Nothing has changed, including the heated and often polarised debate. It is upsetting to witness MPs—mostly female—on the receiving end of some of the most vile abuse, be it online or via email. If there is one thing that the Government must take control of, it is the narrow arguments on Brexit. The same characters are preaching the same rhetoric, and as a country and a community we have not moved forward or even reunited.

We are left in a truly sorry state of affairs, and what pains me most is that it really did not have to be this way. Instead of negotiating in seriousness and respect, recognising the close relationship the UK wants with the EU—our closest and most important partner—the Government wasted two years fighting among themselves and botching together a deal that pleases nobody. Therefore, whichever way people voted in the referendum two years ago, one thing is miraculously unifying my constituency: we do not want the Prime Minister’s deal.

We are calling the negotiations out for the failure that they are. We reject this botched, blindfold Brexit, and we agree that we must, and certainly can, do better than this to keep our country strong and safe while helping our communities to thrive into the future.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jo Platt Excerpts

Thursday 26th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

The UK’s current food production-to-supply ratio is actually 76% for indigenous-type foods and 60% for all foods. That is not low by historical standards and has been relatively stable in recent years. However, we want to have a vibrant, successful, profitable food and farming industry, and our recent consultation sets out some thoughts to deliver that.

[Jo Platt (Leigh) (Lab/Co-op)]

Following local concerns about an animal rescue centre in my constituency of Leigh, I was shocked to learn that in England there are currently no regulations or licensing requirements for pet rescue centres. Will the Government commit to introducing proposals to protect the welfare of animals in rescue centres?

[George Eustice]

We recently introduced new regulations and licensing requirements covering commercial boarding establishments, but there are no current plans to regulate rescue homes. We do not want to create unnecessary burdens on the charitable sector. However, many such establishments are members of the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes, members of which must already meet minimum standards.