More, better paid council engineers to fight floods

A revival in local government technical skills with much higher pay scales for public sector flood engineers was called for this week by the government's key advisor on flooding strategy.

Speaking to NCE ahead of the launch of his final report today, Sir Michael Pitt advocated placing responsibility for local flood defence and response with local authorities.

The Environment Agency meanwhile will take the lead on national, strategic policy for river, coastal and surface water flooding.

"Local authorities should take a strong leadership role in their communities on the issue of flooding – be it in relation to development control decisions or tackling local flooding issues on the ground," Pitt told NCE.

"But we will need a technical renaissance in local authorities to drive this through."

Pitt's final report, Learning the Lessons of the 2007 Floods, says that local authorities need a strong technical centre so they can be capable of commissioning and challenging expert external advice.

"This will be central to ensuring that local communities are properly protected and that development that increases the risk of flooding does not take place," says the report.

The recommendations follow Pitt's promise earlier this year to call for a senior flood engineer in every county council and unitary authority in England and Wales (NCE 24 January).

Pitt said he recognised that this would be a challenge in the face of dwindling engineering departments in local authorities where much of the engineering specialism "is now limited to highway engineering."

Salaries would have to rise for public sector flood engineers if enough are to be attracted into the sector, the report adds.

ICE's Engineering Skills for Flood Risk Management 2004 report predicted a 19% shortfall in public sector flood professionals by 2009. But there was no shortage of flood risk engineers in private sector consultancy.

"This may be due in part…. to the level of salaries on offer," Pitt said. "If local authorities wish to attract high-calibre candidates they will need to demonstrate their commitment by offering attractive remuneration packages."

"Without the appropriate technical renaissance of local authorities there is a danger that many of our recommendations will not be delivered effectively," says the report.

Pitt said consulting engineers should still be relied on heavily by councils "but there will be real benefits in having in-house expertise, including getting maximum value out of partnerships with consultants."

Other Recommendations

 Flood defence spending to rise in real terms every spending review

 Strong presumption against building in high flood risk areas; properties at risk should be resilient to flooding

 Developers to pay to build and maintain flood defences in high risk areas

 Use the economic regulatory framework to provide appropriate economic incentives to increase the resilience of critical infrastructure

Enhance capacity to absorb shock and act quickly through mandatory business continuity planning

 Ensure effective emergency response at local level through improved information sharing

 Tell people if they are in the
path of flood water from potential dam bursts

 Improve mapping, modelling and forecasting with Met Office and Environment Agency working together to do this

 Fully funded national capability for flood rescue

 Roads and rail to respond faster to flood warnings and have emergency welfare plans for stranded passengers

 Rethink flood codes system as it is too complicated