Extreme Climate and Weather Events: National Resilience

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am a Cornish MP, and we are a people on the edge. With sea on three sides and cut off from England by a river and a precarious train line, we have become used to being at the centre of a world that is a long way from everyone else. That has made us resilient, independent and proud. But being at the edge of the country has meant that we are often at the sharp edge of climate change. We are closer to its effects, and the weather often hits us slap in the face, even on a normal day.

We know that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, and 2025 was the warmest year on record. Four of the five warmest years since 1884 have occurred in the past five years, and the record for the highest UK annual mean temperature has been broken six times since 2000. Last year, the Met Office warned that the likelihood of experiencing temperatures above 40° is now 20 times greater than it was in just the 1960s. In the summer, hosepipe bans are now common, and we had one in Cornwall, despite our copious rainfall, that went on for months and into the autumn of 2023. This winter was also the duchy’s wettest since records began in 1836. Cardinham had 55 consecutive wet days, and we were battered by three storms in quick succession: Goretti, Ingrid and Chandra.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing forward the debate. She is right to refer to the terrible weather we have had. Before Christmas, I think we had 43 days in Northern Ireland when there was no sunshine. Flooding incidents are not just happening in her constituency; they are also happening across Northern Ireland, in Fermanagh, Down and Armagh. Defences and embankments are under strain, and some areas remain vulnerable despite ongoing monitoring and mitigation. Some watercourses, such as the Newry canal and the Shimna river, have even burst their banks in times of extreme storms and rainfall. Does she agree that we must prioritise investment in river embankments and flood defences and ensure that high-risk areas receive immediate attention—the very thing that she and all of us in this Chamber want?

[Jayne Kirkham]

I agree with the hon. Member. We must prioritise flooding, which is becoming more and more of a risk. Every week when I get on the train—which has often been a bus—from Cornwall to London, I see what looks like a lake or sea, but it is in fact the Somerset levels submerged under floodwater.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for securing this important debate. Storm Chandra hit the Somerset levels terribly badly. Water falling on already saturated land caused huge issues for many people. Farmers play a crucial role in managing our floodwaters. One farmer, Mike Curtis, who farms in Muchelney, took me and the Water and Flooding Minister out when she visited at the beginning of the month, showing the amount of water that can be stored on their land to save many other communities and thousands of homes in Bridgwater and Taunton from flooding. Mike told me that they are happy to store that water on their land to stop flooding further down the catchment, but does the hon. Member agree that farmers like Mike, as they are providing a public good, should be properly and fairly compensated?

[Jayne Kirkham]

I agree that farmers have been incredibly helpful in so many ways; I am thinking about Storm Goretti and all the work they did with clearing trees. Of course, hopefully some of the work that this Government are doing on the sustainable farming incentive will also enable them to do that work to store water. We need to build resilience on a national and local level, but we are not currently fully prepared.

[Helena Dollimore (Hastings and Rye) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend and I worked together on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee to push for the inquiry on extreme weather events to which her debate refers. The fire service is often the first agency on the scene after flooding, a storm, a landslip or a wildfire, but under the previous Government it was cut back significantly. The fire service is called out more and more often. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is more important than ever?

[Jayne Kirkham]

I agree; the fire service is absolutely fundamental, particularly in Cornwall, where it did amazing work during Storm Goretti.

In its response to the UK’s third national adaptation plan, the Climate Change Committee called on the Government to urgently refresh NAP3, as it fell short of preparing the UK for the climate change that we are experiencing, and adaptation progress is too slow, has stalled or is sometimes heading in the wrong direction. We are still reliant on short-term emergency measures, which cost more in the long term.

[Rachel Gilmour (Tiverton and Minehead) (LD)]

I congratulate the hon. Member from across the border on securing the debate. She will know that the south-west was hit particularly hard by the recent Storm Chandra, including parts of my constituency that were left submerged. Does she agree that we must now embed a truly comprehensive climate resilience strategy across all Government Departments and agencies at the heart of decision making—one that shifts our posture as much as possible from reaction to prevention?

[Jayne Kirkham]

I agree. I was going to say that that kind of cross-departmental strategy is so important, because all Departments are impacted and can do things that could help, but that is made difficult when Departments are so siloed.

The EFRA Committee, on which I sit, has an ongoing inquiry into climate and weather resilience. Farmers are heavily affected by extreme weather events, and that impacts on our food security and prices. British farm businesses were down £800 million in 2025 because of crop failures, and three of the five worst harvests on record have occurred since 2020. However, the risks go beyond farming. According to the Environment Agency, 6.3 million homes and businesses are at risk of flooding, but over the past decade one in 13 homes were still built in high-risk flood zones.

[Tessa Munt (Wells and Mendip Hills) (LD)]

The hon. Lady mentions the Environment Agency, which is causing quite high levels of stress. I should declare an interest: my partner is a farmer, and we had an 80-acre lake for some weeks on the farm. The Environment Agency started thinking about bringing the pumps only after the storms had come. What we need is for the pumps to be there already, so that they can start to pump water away as the storms come in. Otherwise, everybody gets flooded and it is really catastrophic.

[Jayne Kirkham]

Of course, the EA has struggled with funding for the past 10 years, after it had been cut so badly.

[Caroline Voaden (South Devon) (LD)]

The hon. Lady is being very generous with her time. In my constituency, several homes along the seafront were very badly damaged by storms in February, and as they cannot be lived in, the residents have been evacuated. Seafront protection, which is a responsibility of the Environment Agency, is key—particularly if those people are to live in their houses again—but the Environment Agency tells me that there is no emergency funding, and it cannot suddenly shore up the sea defences. The work would have to go through the normal process of allocation, and it might take up to two years before money can be allocated to improve the coastal defences in front of the houses of Torcross. For the people who have been moved out of their homes, that is an absolute disaster. Does she agree that, as we encounter more extreme weather events, the Environment Agency must be more flexible and nimble, and should be able to access funding quicker in order to shore up defences?

[Jayne Kirkham]

Yes, a great deal of work will have to be done in future, because this will not get better; it will get worse.

Businesses that rely on electricity and broadband are paralysed by outages during extreme weather events, and hospitals risk losing power or water. Heavy rainfall has even led to overflowing septic tanks and sewage spilling out on to streets in Cornwall, creating serious risks to public health. So much of Cornwall’s economy depends on our coast. When beaches, cafés, coastal roads and car parks are under managed realignment in the new shoreline management plan epoch, coastal places will lose their staple industries, and entire communities face existential threats from rising sea levels and coastal erosion. A lot of work is being done across Government, particularly on the water industry and flooding preparedness, which I welcome, but we need to protect communities from the inevitable march of climate change and act with greater urgency.

The urgency of the situation was obvious when Storm Goretti struck Cornwall on 8 and 9 January 2026. It triggered a rare Met Office red warning, with gusts of around 120 mph, and inflicted severe damage on our homes and infrastructure. We lost over 1,000 trees, 121,000 customers lost power, and thousands lost access to clean water. Roads were blocked, communities cut off, and schools, care homes and hospitals faced unprecedented strain.

[Martin Wrigley (Newton Abbot) (LD)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing this really important debate to the Chamber. Does she agree that the railway is a key part of the infrastructure and communications she is talking about, and we must focus on getting the final phase of the Dawlish rail resilience programme completed, along with the other measures? Dawlish and Teignmouth saw massive damage in these storms, with Teignmouth pier washing up on Dawlish beach and Dawlish beach itself being destroyed. Does she agree that the railway going down would be disastrous for Cornwall?

[Jayne Kirkham]

The hon. Member feels my pain. Yes, of course we need a strategic plan for our rail in the south-west. That is fundamental, and I will come on to it later.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

The hon. Member mentioned Storm Goretti. She and I attended the online meeting on storm recovery with Ministers two days after the event. What troubled me in that meeting was the culture that exists among service providers, and indeed Government Departments, of always seeking to reassure Ministers that everything is under control and presenting a very different picture from the one that I was seeing on the ground in west Cornwall, where my constituency was the worst hit. Does she agree that, following Storm Goretti, we need to ensure that we genuinely learn lessons about what actually happened on the ground and how we can recover best and put the right resources in place to help communities in future?

[Jayne Kirkham]

I understand the hon. Member’s point, and I know that his constituency was the worst affected, with people losing their water as well as their power. I agree that we must learn the lessons from Goretti.

Utility teams worked around the clock with local authorities, engineers and emergency responders to restore essential services. National Grid brought in 1,350 staff from all across the country, and tree surgeons were deployed, but we saw failures in the systems designed to keep people safe. The storm was a wake-up call. It exposed vulnerabilities in our infrastructure and emergency planning that could affect anywhere in the UK as extreme weather becomes more frequent.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend talks about this affecting anywhere in the UK. Does she agree that it is simply unacceptable that all six Cornish constituencies appear at the bottom of the rankings in terms of mobile connectivity, and that any plan to improve our resilience has to include a focus on telecommunications and our ability to get messages into our villages, some of which were completely cut off not just physically but in terms of communication as a result of Storm Goretti?

[Jayne Kirkham]

As my hon. Friend’s constituency is next to mine, he will know that we have exactly the same problems in Truro and Falmouth, and I will move on to that next.

I have had wash-up meetings across my constituency since the storm, and we have been talking to Ministers. I welcome the suggestion that Cornwall could serve as a pilot area for emergency storm resilience measures, some of which I will talk about now.

[Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab)]

There has been a huge amount of progress towards what a good devolution settlement for Cornwall should look like, but it is also increasingly evident since Storm Goretti that part of that deal has to be infrastructure resilience. I really welcome the idea that we pilot some of these storm resilience measures, but will my hon. Friend join me in asking the Minister to speak with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and work to get the investment needed to underpin that?

[Jayne Kirkham]

Yes, I agree.

One of the most profound lessons that we must learn from Storm Goretti is to increase communications infrastructure, particularly in rural areas. Many of our constituents were left without power or broadband in areas that have weak or no mobile phone signal, so they struggled to get help. Although we are frequently told by the four network providers that they have 99% 4G coverage, that does not ring true to anyone in Cornwall, where we struggle to get a signal on a regular basis.

[Dr Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge) (Con)]

The hon. Lady is being very generous with her time, and this has been a fascinating debate. Runnymede and Weybridge is frequently hit by flooding, but I have noticed that one problem is that there are so many different responders, sometimes seemingly acting independently. When residents contact the flood line, they find that it operates more like an intercom service, as opposed to taking information and giving them a direct response. I am calling for a flood control centre—a single point of contact that can co-ordinate flood response and preparatory works in my area. I am happy to speak to the hon. Lady after the debate about the work that I am trying to lobby the Government about. By the sounds of it, that could also help with the response in Cornwall.

[Jayne Kirkham]

That sounds like an interesting proposal. Our local resilience centre was in Exeter, and I think that is why the category 1 responders did not declare a major incident; Exeter is a long way away from us, so I understand the hon. Gentleman’s idea of having a flood control centre.

When Goretti hit, the Cabinet Office activated the national alert messaging. That was important and successful as an early-warning system, but it was impacted by the patchy mobile coverage. We need a more truthful method of measuring mobile coverage, and a means of applying pressure to the providers, so that they meet their obligations. Goretti also exposed the fact that most mobile masts do not have back-up generators or battery reserves, making them vulnerable to power loss. This contrasts with the expectations placed on water and electricity companies, which operate under more established resilience duties. Telecoms are just as essential, and the civil contingencies framework should reflect that in practice, not just in statute.

During Goretti, many residents with no internet or mobile signal found that digital landlines did not work without power. Ofcom’s rules require only one hour of battery back-up for vulnerable customers, which is inadequate. An Ofcom technical report from last year noted that about two thirds of the population would be able to make emergency calls in a power outage of under an hour, but the number who could do so after six hours was redacted, and was described as being “far fewer”.

[Ben Maguire (North Cornwall) (LD)]

I met constituents in Boscastle last week who reminded me about the terrible events of 2004, when there were huge floods that were devastating. The hon. Member mentioned the one hour of battery back-up, which is absolutely farcical and totally inadequate, but it was explained to me that even if someone had a back-up battery in their house, they could have problems, because the internet service provider’s unit and the street unit could be completely without power. Even if those battery back-ups had unlimited usage hours, people would still not have internet access in those emergencies.

[Jayne Kirkham]

That is why a satellite link across villages might be something to consider.

On broadband, Openreach and service providers do not have a good system of fault notification. During Goretti, they were unaware of faults, and the notification of faults solely through third-party providers did not work well, as residents struggled to get through. A more direct method of reporting faults and an interactive map, maybe like the one that National Grid uses, showing the location of faults and realistic time estimates for restoration, would be helpful. That is particularly pertinent in Cornwall, as last month Wildanet withdrew from several Project Gigabit contracts, leaving nearly 8,000 rural premises in limbo, without the high-speed broadband that they were promised. We must not leave them behind.

We must also ensure that our transport systems are robust. We have talked about the recent storms damaging Dawlish. The sinkhole between Dawlish and Teignmouth also led to closure of the rail line, which is the only line in and out of the far south-west. When the Goretti alert went out, all Cornwall’s MPs were stranded in the south-east. I could not get home, and we had to hire a car the next day. My son was alone in the house, 300 miles away. The Valentine’s day storm of 2014 led to the far south-west being cut off for eight weeks. In that time, the region lost anywhere between £60 million and £1.2 billion, according to Devon Maritime Forum. Since then, work has been done to make the line more resilient, but the strategic long-term plan that we have discussed for rail across the south-west is an urgent priority, as without it, our economy will stagnate.

I will also mention energy resilience. I support the Government’s ambition to increase the UK’s energy security by investing in renewables. I was so pleased to attend the launch of the local power plan last month, which will allow communities to own and benefit directly from the energy that they produce. Locally produced and managed power will be more resilient.

Rural areas such as mine have a high proportion of properties off the gas grid. Approximately 14% of Cornish households rely on oil for heating, compared with a national average of below 5%. There is an alternative in the form of hydro-treated vegetable oil, which has been trialled in Cornwall, but the incentives are not there. Meanwhile, I have spoken to constituents who have been refused planning permission to put solar panels or turbines on properties that are listed or in conservation areas, as many in our area are. Ensuring that as many people as possible can benefit from local renewable energy will allow us to be more resilient to shocks.

An issue that became apparent during the storm was the lack of community emergency plans. In my constituency, some parishes had them, and some did not, but even the existing emergency plans did not work if people did not know who should be putting them into action. The will was there, and the Cornish spirit came to the fore—neighbours checked in on each other, and farmers helped to clear fallen trees—but there was an overall lack of co-ordination.

[Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for calling for this really important debate. There are vulnerable residents across Cornwall, and particularly in South East Cornwall. The ability of different data collectors to work alongside each other, and ensure that we know where the vulnerable people are and that they can be reached quickly, is really crucial. The ability to use data in a responsible way is really important. Does she agree that we must do more to collect that data and share it across Cornwall?

[Jayne Kirkham]

I agree. A better way of sharing data must be found. Different utility companies and the council had different lists, and the parishes could not get hold of them at all. That is a really important issue.

[Caroline Voaden]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Jayne Kirkham]

Really quickly.

[Caroline Voaden]

On the point about utility companies, we had a major gas outage in South Devon at the beginning of the year. We had a problem that is probably very familiar to MPs in Cornwall; the utility company could not trace who owned the second homes, because the homeowners were not there. As the utility company was working through an intermediary energy supplier, it did not have the data on who the customer was. That meant that the power was switched off for about three days, when it could have been switched off for only a few hours. Does the hon. Lady agree that that is a serious problem in areas like ours, where there is a large proportion of second homes?

[Jayne Kirkham]

I do. Second homes are a whole other debate.

Every parish should be able to identify a community hub that residents can go to in an emergency. It should have a generator, battery packs, blankets, food, and a pre-registered list of volunteers. I know that parishes in Cornwall are considering that, but it could be encouraged across the UK and co-ordinated at a higher-tier council level—maybe across a local or national level. We could look again at the Bellwin scheme, and at how category 2 and category 1 responders respond to these issues.

Finally, there is a conversation to be had about personal resilience. We all need to be more prepared. Having a basic emergency kit sounds simple, but it makes a big difference.

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating people like Flood Mary? She has, for many decades, gone up and down the country, having been flooded herself, trying to inspire people and educate them about what they can do in their home to protect themselves.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jayne Kirkham]

That is exactly what we need more of. In an emergency, we need a camping stove, water, a battery-powered radio—BBC Radio Cornwall was fantastic during Storm Goretti—torches, spare batteries, power banks and so on.

Storm Goretti highlighted to all of us how essential it is to improve our resilience in the face of extreme weather events. Cornwall is an ideal location to pilot national resilience measures, and I hope that the lessons learned from the storm will enable us across the country to become better prepared for extreme climate and weather challenges.