Flooding

Rebecca Pow Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2020 Commons Chamber

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

As ever, it is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Unfortunately, as we all know, flooding does not discriminate, as shown by the many impassioned speeches from hon. Members on both sides of the House. Flooding affects all constituencies, and I thank every single Member who has contributed today.

Before I continue, I will mention the marvellous maiden speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe (Holly Mumby-Croft), the granddaughter of a veteran steelworker. She brought to life his world, her world and the world of Scunthorpe. It was vivid and fascinating to hear about the steel industry, toecaps and all. I know she will make a great contribution to this House, and she is very welcome.

At the outset, I add my condolences to those of the whole House to the families and friends of those who sadly lost their life as a result of these storms. I also give my heartfelt thoughts to those who have been flooded.

I have seen the impact at first hand in Bewdley, Worcester and Calder Valley—some of my family live near Bewdley—and I experienced the terrible flooding in Somerset in 2013-14. Some of the impact of that flooding, on both individuals and businesses, is still imprinted on my mind.

Like many others, I pay tribute to all the responders who are managing this ongoing incident and supporting flooded communities, and to the emergency services, the Environment Agency, the local authorities, the Army, Government officials and multiple Departments across Government for their professionalism and relentlessness. Some of them have been working, and are still working, 24 hours a day. Thanks to them all, and thanks to all the communities and charities working on the ground. We have heard so much about their fantastic work.

[Chris Bryant]

Will the Minister give way?

[Rebecca Pow]

I will not take any interventions, because I want to refer to a lot of Members who have spoken.

I reiterate that this has been an unprecedented time. February 2020 was the wettest February on record in England and, indeed, right across the UK. Some places received over four times the average monthly rainfall, and the Met Office had to create a new scale on its map to show areas receiving over 200% of their average rainfall. Members who saw the map will have seen that quite clearly. It is absolutely staggering.

Although it is devastating for anybody to be flooded, we must remember that one in six properties in England are susceptible to flood risk. The storms flooded over 3,400 properties in February. Yes, that is terrible for the people who are flooded, but it is equivalent to less than 0.1% of all properties at risk in England. I point out to the shadow Minister that that compares with the 17,000 properties flooded in 2015, so the situation is a great deal better.

Thousands of properties have been protected by the permanent and temporary flood defences about which we have heard so much today. More than 128,000 properties have been protected this winter, despite the record river level rises. Many colleagues have shared their experiences to show how flood defences have helped and have worked. I am grateful to my hon. Friends the Members for Gloucester (Richard Graham) and for Tonbridge and Malling (Tom Tugendhat), who gave good examples of that.

In addition, people are becoming more aware of their risk of flooding. Digital services, such as the online flood warnings and alerts provided by the Environment Agency, which I hope the shadow Secretary of State has had a look at, because they are rather good—[Interruption.] He gets them himself, which is excellent. They have had 3.1 million hits so far, and this is very important, because individually we need to take responsibility for resilience. On that note of awareness of risk, I wish to respond to comments of the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) about the coal tips. Just to clarify, let me say that the Secretary of State for Wales has met local partners, including the Welsh Government and the UK Coal Authority, and it is the UK Coal Authority that has been collecting and analysing data on the situation. Based on that data, which has been gathered quickly, it will establish a schedule of inspections. That will start with dealing with those areas with the highest risk.

[Chris Bryant]

Just say, “In Rhondda.”

[Rebecca Pow]

I want to point out that this is still a live flooding incident and the outlook is unsettled, although I am pleased to say that in some areas the journey to recovery is beginning.

As the Secretary of State pointed out, the Government have acted swiftly to support those affected. We have supported the authorities by activating the Bellwin scheme. I take the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for North Herefordshire (Bill Wiggin) about the need for better training and perhaps better information to be disseminated about that scheme. The flood recovery network was activity on 18 February, and that triggered a series of grant payments for affected homes and businesses. The framework was devised from lessons learned from the 2016 floods, and this is only the second time that it has been triggered.

The shadow team called for another review, but yesterday we held a meeting where MPs could talk to the Environment Agency and feed in all their information, data and findings, yet only one Labour Member turned up—all the rest there were Conservative Members, feeding in and reviewing constantly, as is happening all the time with the flood recovery framework. That is what it is there for; people are constantly feeding in from local authorities, from places on the ground, and from flood forums, as are MPs and all the rest.

I wish to touch quickly on insurance, because many Members have raised that issue. In 2016, the joint Government and industry initiative launched Flood Re to improve the availability and affordability of flood insurance for at-risk properties. Before that, only 9% of those households could get hold of flood insurance, whereas now 100% can get quotes from two or more insurers. However, we are looking further at insurance cover through an independent review; the Government are already undertaking a review, so there is no need to have another review into this. We announced that on 27 December and once the information has been gathered in, details will be announced in due course. I hope that that will assuage the concerns of the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) and my hon. Friends the Members for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) and for Penrith and The Border (Dr Hudson), who all called for this. Obviously I wish to reiterate that the Government are absolutely committed to their £2.6 billion of spending on flood defences and £1 billion on maintenance, and we have a commitment to a further £4 billion.

I wish quickly to deal with individual cases. My hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker) mentioned that the schemes are taking too long. I will ask Sir James Bevan, from the Environment Agency, to give an update on the progress and what is happening there. I will of course look for the letter mentioned by the hon. Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi), and I apologise, because we are normally pretty fast at responding to people.

On the call for help for Toronto Close in Worcester, the EA will continue to work with the community.

My hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) and the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Emma Hardy) both mentioned the flood centre, which I am happy to meet to discuss.

My hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier) was as ever an enormous champion for his area. The Secretary of State and the Minister responsible for farming are looking at the three-crop rule.

On the funding formula, I must reiterate to all colleagues that money is handed out with regard to the number of properties at risk and the number of people at risk. The value of properties has nothing to do with it, and deprived areas have a special focus.

We will look at what is happening on flood plains, because both the Secretary of State and I agree that planning needs to be looked at. The Government are absolutely committed on tackling flooding and will have a new strategy going forward. We will be holding a summit in Yorkshire and will let the House know the date of it in due course.

Question put (Standing Order No. 31(2)), That the original words stand part of the Question.