Opposition Day — Flooding — Spending on Flood Defences — Review of Flood Policy — 6 Jan 2016 at 18:50

The majority of MPs voted against spending £800 million per year on maintenance and strengthening of flood defences and against an urgent, independent, public review of flood policy.

The motion rejected by the majority of MPs in this vote was:

• That this House
• extends its sympathy to all those affected by recent floods and its gratitude to the emergency services, armed forces and volunteers who rallied round to help afflicted communities over the holiday period;
• notes the damage the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s cuts, which the National Audit Office estimates amounted to 10 per cent over the course of the last Parliament, excluding emergency funding, have caused to these communities;
• notes that by delaying or cutting new flood defence projects or neglecting maintenance of existing flood defences, the Government has failed to protect these communities;
• notes with concern the recent decision by the Scottish Government to impose a six per cent cut on funding to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency;
• believes that there has been a dismal lack of action by the Cabinet Committee set up after the floods of 2013-14 and questions the effectiveness of the newly-created Cabinet Committee under the same leadership;
• further believes that the UK needs a long-term plan which includes a complete rethink of flood defences, as proposed by the Environment Agency, measures to make homes, communities and infrastructure more flood resilient and a greater focus on flood prevention, particularly through uplands and water catchment management; and
• calls on the Government to commit to the figure that the Environment Agency said in 2014 was required to protect communities of £800 million per year on maintenance and strengthening of flood defences and to carry out an urgent, independent, public review of flood policy.

The 2015/16 budget allocation for flood and coastal erosion risk management was £695.3m.^[1] This was the current budget at the time of the vote.

• [1] p5 Central Government Funding for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management in England, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, December 2015

Debate in Parliament | Source |