Storm Babet: Flooding Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateKeir Mather
Main Page: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby)Department Debates - View all Keir Mather's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(10 months, 1 week ago)
Commons ChamberBuilding and development has been considered, working with DLUHC, in our holistic plan for water. It is why we so urgently need sustainable urban drainage, for example, in our new developments and to get that switched on. It is being reviewed and hopefully that will start to happen, because it will make such a difference in trapping and capturing water, as do schemes such as grey water harvesting, semi-permeable driveways and so on. I urge planning departments to consider them, because they will make such a difference in areas such as my hon. Friend’s.
Flooding devastates communities across Selby and Ainsty. Residents are caused enormous anxiety and panic when events like Storm Babet occur. Will the Minister outline what steps she is taking to work with the Environment Agency regionally in Yorkshire to ensure that towns like Tadcaster are safe from flooding in future?
I can give the hon. Gentleman an absolute assurance that we are working very closely with the regional Environment Agencies. In fact, they come to the fore in incidents like this and we are in constant communication with them. They feed into plans for flood management and water resources. It should be a cohesive programme, working together. That is also why, as I mentioned earlier, working in catchments is so important.