Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the removal of the right to use red diesel from April 2022 for flood risk management purposes on the cost of pumping operations by IDBs and others; what consultation he has had with those likely to be affected; and what steps the Government plans to take to ensure that future flood prevention activities are not compromised.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The changes to the tax treatment of red diesel from April 2022 are designed to incentivise greater energy efficiency and the switch to more environmentally friendly alternatives in both the public and private sectors. The Government recognises that these changes may affect some public sector bodies, including Internal Drainage Boards, and Treasury officials met representatives from the drainage, water level and flood risk management sector to discuss these tax changes. The Treasury will discuss spending pressures that may arise in the public sector as part of the next Spending Review.
The Government takes flood risk very seriously. That is why it has doubled the amount it invests in flood and coastal defences to £5.2 billion by 2027.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role that parish and community councils have played in raising awareness of (1) flood risks, and (2) flood prevention measures.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Parish and community councils can play an important role in working with local residents to improve awareness of flood risk and prevention measures. Parish Councils have powers under the Local Government Finance Act and Localism Act to incur expenditure or use precept income for the purposes of flood and coastal erosion risk management.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the performance of flood prevention and mitigation measures in Somerset in 2020.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Environment Agency's (EA) top priority has been to maintain flood defence assets to ensure communities in Somerset and across England are incident ready and resilient for potential flooding this winter. The EA has strengthened working arrangements with the support of delivery partners in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The EA's flood risk assets have performed satisfactorily across Somerset. During 2020 the EA operated coastal flood defences to protect people, properties and low lying land in Somerset. The risk from seasonal wet weather in October and most of December for the most part was managed without issue although it meant catchments were very wet. However, both Storm Alex and Storm Bella, sadly resulted in flooding.
During Storm Alex, over 100mm of rain (more than the monthly average of rain) fell in two days on the steep sided upper reaches of the River Sheppey and this resulted in flooding at Croscombe and Shepton Mallett (initial estimates are that 20 properties flooded in total). Roads were also flooded from surface water. This is a complex flooding issue and the EA is assisting Somerset County Council with its Section 19 investigation (Flood and Water Management Act) into the cause, likelihood of recurrence and need for measures to reduce the risk.
Over Christmas, Storm Bella on wet, saturated catchments generated rivers flows in excess of the River Parrett and Tone's capacity. This passed into the adjacent flood plains and moors, Currymoor, Haymoor, Wetmoor, Westmoor Allermoor and the King's Sedgemoor Drain. Using these areas as water storage is an established approach and has been a frequent and normal winter occurrence over many decades.
The EA has been using its pumps and other assets to reduce river levels, and clear water from the moors, making use of the enhanced pumping capacity at Currymoor pumping station.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve flood prevention on the River Arun and River Adur in West Sussex.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has completed Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM) schemes totalling approximately £90 million at Littlehampton and Arundel on the River Arun and at Shoreham on the River Adur during the current 6 year capital investment programme (2015-2021).
Further capital investment is planned over the following 6 years, subject to confirmation of funding. On the River Adur, works to benefit communities at Beeding and Bramber will involve ‘upstream’ natural flood management with habitat creation. The EA will also repair and refurbish flood defences at Burgess Hill. For the River Arun catchment, investment is scheduled at Liss, at the Warnham Mill reservoir at Horsham and along the west bank of the Arun at Littlehampton. The EA is also supporting Local Authority works at Shoreham and Angmering.
The EA will continue to carry out maintenance at ‘high flood risk’ locations along the Arun and Adur rivers, and to provide advice to landowners undertaking their own watercourse maintenance.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to ensure that farmers' land is not affected by the implementation of flood prevention measures along the River Severn.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency, along with other members of the River Severn partnership, is currently investigating options to reduce flood risk along the River Severn. The partnership is taking a catchment based approach, looking at a range of options, both traditional and innovative, to better manage water across the Severn Basin.
The effects of any proposal, in terms of both its benefits and impacts, are carefully considered as part of the development process in order to ensure they are acceptable to all stakeholders and do not increase risk to others.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his Department's budget is for tackling river pollution; and on what his Department plans to spend that budget.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A number of funded programmes across Defra deliver multiple environmental benefits. For example, from the start of 2014/15 to the end of 2021/22, we will have spent around £3bn on agri-environment schemes under the Rural Development Programme for England. These schemes help farmers deliver multiple and joint benefits for water, air, biodiversity, flood prevention and more. While some of this is directly targeted at water quality, the wider spend has broader, cross cutting benefits some of which will help to improve water quality, which cannot be simply disaggregated. There, is therefore, no single budgetary figure that can capture all the work done across the Department to tackle river and water pollution.
Of programmes specifically aimed at water management the Water Environment Improvement Fund, with a resources budget of £6.5 million and a capital fund of £10 million in 2020/21, supports local catchment schemes tackling river and other water pollution. A resource budget of £2.86 million and capital budget of £4 million is available for the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines scheme, which funds measures to prevent water from disused mines, polluted with harmful metals such as lead and zinc, entering surface and groundwater.
Tackling river and other water pollution is supported by considerable water company investment in environmental improvements, under their statutory obligations. In the Price Review period 2020-25, investment has been scaled up to £4.6 billion.
Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what short-term flood prevention measures will be put in place to tackle the potential for flooding in Shrewsbury in winter 2020-21.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Over the winter of 2019/20 the River Severn catchment saw some of the highest river levels ever recorded. While, unfortunately, around 1,600 properties were flooded across the West Midlands, Environment Agency (EA) flood risk management assets prevented over 14,500 properties from flooding.
Since the winter floods, the EA has been delivering its recovery programme. This is to ensure that all of its flood assets that were affected by significant flooding are inspected and repaired where necessary.
In the 2020 budget, Government announced a national £120 million package to repair flood risk management assets damaged as a result of the winter floods. For Shrewsbury’s assets the EA secured £605,000, covering both Frankwell and Coleham flood risk management schemes. Ahead of this winter, EA flood risk management assets in Shrewsbury have been fully inspected. Repair work to these defences is currently ongoing, however the defences will remain fully operational throughout this process.
As well as asset repairs, the EA continues to deliver its annual routine maintenance programme for the River Severn. This helps to ensure any blockages or debris that may cause an increase in flood risk have been managed and that Shrewsbury is winter-ready, should further flooding occur.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support his Department has provided to reduce risks to (a) life, (b) health, (c) homes, (d) livelihoods, and (e) education from flooding of the Nile river system along its course in the last 12 months.
Answered by James Duddridge
The UK has responded to flooding along the Nile in Sudan this year and in South Sudan in 2019. In Sudan the UK is providing £25million in 2020 to the UN Sudan Humanitarian Fund to support a range of urgent needs, including flood response. In South Sudan, the UK provided vital support to affected communities including food, clean water and sanitation, disease prevention and shelter, as well as a helicopter to deliver vital supplies to those communities and support to livelihoods recovery.
We also reduce flooding risks through the UK funded Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa programme. This support to the work of meteorological and associated offices across East Africa helps strengthen weather forecasting and early warning, as well as longer term climate forecasts. Access to early warning is one important aspect of building resilience to floods and other climate shocks.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the timetable is for carrying out flood prevention work at the River Thames in Reading.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
More than 700 properties, roads and other infrastructure are at risk of flooding from the Thames in north Reading and Lower Caversham. The Environment Agency (EA) has engaged widely with the community to raise awareness of flood risk and to get feedback on plans for a flood risk management scheme which would include flood walls, embankments and a channel to bypass Reading Bridge. The EA is reviewing feedback from the community and if there is support for the scheme it will progress work to secure the necessary permissions and funding.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any extra funding has been allocated to the Welsh Government to deal with recent flooding in Wales.
Answered by Earl of Courtown - Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Office of the Secretary of State for Wales and others are determined to ensure that all of those affected by flooding are supported in the best way possible. Flood response in Wales is a devolved matter. It was announced in March Budget that the UK Government will fund assistance for flood relief. For 2020-21, the Welsh Government will receive an additional £17m in Barnett consequentials from additional spending on flood prevention in England. If the Welsh Government matches our spending per head on flood prevention then this would see over £300m spent in Wales by 2026-27.