Minister promises action on Flooding

Minister responds to Pitt Review

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has pledged to introduce a "prioritised action plan" to improve flood protection which will be published in the autumn. 

Mr Benn was commenting on the official review by Sir Michael Pitt into last summer's devastating floods. Mr Benn said £5m would be spent on surface water management, £1m on making reservoirs safer and £250,000 on a nationwide flood response exercise.

An "opt-out" telephone flood warning system will also be set up. Anyone living in a flood-prone area, apart from those who are ex-directory, will automatically be signed up for notification by the Environment Agency. Mr Benn said: "We can never eliminate the risk of flooding, particularly as climate change takes hold, but all of us - government, water and electricity providers, local councils and individuals - must take flood risk seriously and be as prepared as we can be deal to with it."

   Long-term plan

Sir Michael said "urgent and fundamental changes" were needed to improve flood defences, along with a longer-term, 25-year plan to tackle the issue. He added that it was "unacceptable" that so many homes lost power and water last year and utility companies must do more to safeguard supplies. Recently the Environment Agency reported to House of Commons that the electricity industry had identified just over 1,000 grid and primary sites which were in flood zones.

The government has allocated just £34.5m to implement the recommendations of the Pitt Review which is likely to fall short of the amount needed to protect the vulnerable sites so far idenified. The government will be bringing forward a Flood and Water Bill to Parliament in time for the next session The secretary of state said he would produce an outline for the "national flood emergency framework" by the end of next month and a draft Floods and Water Bill would be brought forward in the next parliamentary session.

Shadow secretary Peter Ainsworth commented that previous warnings had been "largely ignored" by ministers and "more dithering" would simply not do. "Sir Michael's interim report said that the floods were a wake-up call, but having made a bit of progress on some of the recommendations, somebody seems to have hit the snooze button," Mr Ainsworth said.

The Environment Agency's chief executive Paul Leinster welcomed Sir Michael's recommendation - and Mr Benn's vow - to give it overall strategic control of flood planning. But he said: "We now need the Floods Bill to give us the proper tools and legislation to finish the job." Sir Michael also recommended that each local authority be explicitly given control of flood management in their area. Sir Michael said the Environment Agency should work more closely with the Met Office to produce more accurate flood forecasts. John Harmer, from the Met Office, said it was introducing "a new package of science" which would better predict where the heaviest bursts of rain would fall.

Continuity Forum Comment

Industry experts and commentators in reacting to the Pitt Review are positive on the final reports findings, but are already stressing on the importance of government to really act. Concerns over the scale of the issues and the communcation difficulties highlighted by the Pitt Review come as no surprise to many in the sector, but concerns remain over the real level of commitment within many organisations to really address the problems.

A strong focus on BCM needs to be included in the Flooding and Water Bill and the Civil Contingencies act updated to reflect BS25999 as a minimum standard for those responsible for critical infrastructure within our communities and businesses. Despite regulaltion exisiting through the Civil Contingencies Act many BCM programmes have stalled or are incomplete as a result of a lack of focus and commitment and this must change if substantive progress is to be made.

Only through firm government leadership and good corporate 'citizenship' combined with a regime of inspection and/or assessment will the situation improve. However, if this happens the benefits accrued will extend far beyond Flood defence and extend inot many other areas adding greatly to our capability to deal with disruption of all types ... BCM is at the heart of this opportunity and its a chance not to be missed. End

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