Oral Answers to Questions

Patrick Hurley Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Daniel Zeichner]

As I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Noah Law), the first thing we needed to do was establish how much we are actually buying, and that is now in progress. I absolutely get the point about the urgency. The question is why doing this took the previous Government so long when they shared our ambition. We are determined to make this happen.

[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.

[Patrick Hurley]

The Environment Agency allocates its budgets to carry out work on flood defences on the basis of a funding formula, but that formula does not give sufficient weight to agricultural land. Will the Minister undertake a review of the formula, so that agricultural land gets the flood defences it needs?

[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.

Oral Answers to Questions

Patrick Hurley Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

Mental health services are the responsibility of the national health service, and the former Health Secretary, who broke the NHS, is in no position to lecture anybody about public services. She was no friend of the health service and mental health services, and she is no friend of farming. Some 12,000 farms went bust on the Conservatives’ watch. They failed to get £300 million out the door and into the pockets and bank accounts of farmers, and they signed a trade deal with Australia that undercut British farmers on environmental and welfare standards. I hear the posturing, but it is this Government who are standing up for farming.

[Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)]

T3. I recently met farmers in the northern parishes of my constituency, and they told me about the urgent need for improved water management to protect farmland. They want to establish an internal drainage board for flood management, but they cannot take action to set it up until the necessary statutory instrument is in place. Given the importance of establishing an IDB in my area, will the Minister commit to working with me and stakeholders to reduce flood risks, and will she outline when the statutory instrument for an IDB in my area might be put before the House?