Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I congratulate my hon. Friend and colleagues on their work to put forward such an ambitious proposal. The Environment Agency is considering the proposal in detail, and we will publish a review in July 2015. We were delighted last week to announce £80 million of funding to improve protection for more than 50,000 households around the Humber estuary.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Daniel Kawczynski. Oh dear, the fellow’s not here. Never mind. I call a Member who is always here: Mr Neil Carmichael.

[Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)]

14. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am grateful to the Environment Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for funding £750,000 of investment in protecting my constituency by improving and maintaining defences along the Severn estuary, notably at Lapper ditch at a cost of £500,000. What assurances can the Secretary of State give me and my constituents, however, that this kind of investment and attention to the problem will be continued over the next few years?

[Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State confirm that of the 1,400 schemes she has talked about, 1,119 are only partly funded and rely on 80% unsecured partnership funding and a 10% efficiency saving that nobody has yet identified? In fact, only 97 of those 1,400 schemes are both new and fully funded. She says that 300,000 households will have reduced flood risk, but this figure is the result of homes going from the category of “low risk” to that of “very low risk”, while the number of homes at “significant” and “high” risk of flooding will go up by 80,000 in the next six years. Will she also confirm that in order to get these figures to add up for the Treasury, she has had to value human life at zero?

[Mr Speaker]

Listening to the hon. Gentleman, I always feel that I am on the receiving end of a learned academic treatise, but a question would on the whole be preferred.

[Elizabeth Truss]

In this Parliament, we have already raised £140 million in partnership funding, which is 10 times the amount raised by the previous Government. This means that we are able to go ahead with more flood schemes and protect more homes than they were able to do. As I have made clear, the Environment Agency carried out a detailed assessment showing that overall flood risk will be reduced by 5% as a result of this funding. In the autumn statement, the Chancellor outlined his plans to give tax relief on private contributions to flood defence schemes, thereby making it likely that even more private sector companies will want to invest in flood defences. We are making it happen.

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[Dan Rogerson]

I think that that was a question, although I am not entirely sure. In any event, I thank the hon. Gentleman for the sentiment, with which I entirely agree.

[Mr Speaker]

I think that the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) was operating in the spirit of a poet, and we are obliged to him for that.

[Mr Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

13. What plans she has to encourage communities to contribute towards flood defences; and if she will make a statement.

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[Sir Tony Baldry]

There is a question on this issue later on the Order Paper. May I say to the hon. Gentleman that churches and cathedrals are places of worship—they are not field barns—and it is not appropriate for bats to urinate and defecate in churches, where people are trying to worship and have broader community activities, such as toddlers groups and lunch clubs for pensioners? We have to find a way in which churches can exist as places of worship without being disrupted by bats.

[Mr Speaker]

I am sure that “Baldry on Bats” on BBC Parliament will be an unmissable fixture.

Mr George Hollingbery is not here, so I call Andrew Stephenson.

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[Mr Andrew Robathan (South Leicestershire) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend will know that I love bats—

[Mr Speaker]

The right hon. Gentleman has bats on the brain.

[Mr Robathan]

Sorry, sleeping in the rafters.

[Mr Speaker]

We will hear more about that in a moment. It sounds racy and intoxicating.

[Mr Andrew Robathan]

6. What recent estimate he has made of the costs to churches of damage caused by bat infestation.

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[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

What about the Baldry conservation trust?

[Mr Speaker]

We are not talking about the Baldry conservation trust, Mr Sheerman.

[Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con)]

Will the full might of the Church of England be deployed in support of the Bat Habitats Regulation Bill, which is due for a Second Reading on 16 January 2015? That Bill would protect churches and deregulate the system so that bats did not get a free ride inside our churches.

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[Sir Tony Baldry]

“Baldry on Bats” part 3 has not contemplated the idea of getting the hon. Gentleman around to every church that is infested with bats to exorcise them, but it is certainly worth considering.

[Mr Speaker]

Indeed. Who knows? There might be a debate on the matter. I call Mr Oliver Colvile. Not here.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

8. What guidance the Commissioners are providing to parishes wishing to hold hustings before the general election.