Yorkshire: Sustainable Water Management Solutions

Lord Roborough Excerpts

Wednesday 28th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I assure the noble Baroness that we talk regularly about the importance of this not just to the Treasury but to other departments.

[Lord Roborough (Con)]

My Lords, following on from the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, the Forestry Commission and the Woodland Trust have produced excellent research on the water-related benefits of tree planting, peatland restoration and rewetting wetlands. This demonstrates that reductions in peak flow rates during high rainfall events alleviate flood severity and that better water retention reduces drought severity and improves water quality. How will the Minister bring together the water companies, the insurance industry and infrastructure owners, as the beneficiaries of these nature-based solutions, to fund true catchment-scale investment not just in Yorkshire but all around our country? I declare my interest as a landowner.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I mentioned in response to the earlier question, we know that natural flood management attracts contributions from partners, including private partners, and that is something we must do. As the noble Baroness has just said, flooding has a big impact on climate change. We are not going to solve this unless we bring everyone together—the Government, infrastructure developers, the private sector and so on.