Added 29/9/09  Return to Jubilee River home page   How to contact me

New Civil Engineer

Floods Bill in rocky waters

The much-anticipated floods and water bill is in danger of being watered-down or even abandoned due to constraints of parliamentary time the minister responsible for steering the bill has revealed.

Speaking at a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Brighton, Minister for flooding Huw Irranca-Davies said he wanted to push a Bill through the coming parliamentary session – the last before a general election. However, he had yet to receive instruction on whether the bill would be: “all encompassing all-singing all-dancing or just include the most critical aspect – to give clear responsibility for water.”

The devastating floods of 2007 prompted some £3bn of claims and put some of our critical infrastructure in jeopardy. Last year Sir Michael Pitt made 92 recommendations in his definitive report into the floods. The government has accepted all of these recommendations, but some require primary legislation to be enacted.

Irranca-Davies said he could not forecast what would be in the bill, but: “We could be faced with a slightly different bill in the next couple of weeks [in the Queen’s Speech – the government’s legislative timetable for parliament]. Clarity and responsibility are the big asks. Without a bill we cannot get clarity on roles and responsibilities so householders know who is responsible for what.”

He also said that Local Authorities and Regional Development Agencies need to think about allowing land prone to coastal erosion to be abandoned, and consider buying land from owners and leasing it back to them.

Irranca-Davies also said there was the possibility of having an ‘emergency’ bill that could be tagged onto other legislation to save parliamentary time, which would again set-out responsibilities for local flooding but said that whatever the outcome, the measures had good cross-party support.        

He said good progress had already been made: “We have already doubled the spend on flood defences and we need to do that again, but it is not the case that central and local government can just dip into its pockets.”

However, head of the Centre for Local Sustainability, Dr Andy Johnston who spoke for the Local Government Flood Forum, said that he worried any rushed legislation could leave unresolved issues.

“We are worried that while there could be clarity of responsibility, the money could still be left unresolved and this would remain a problem.”       

Johnston said Flood Management Boards could be a good way to manage issues of flooding, modelled on waste disposal authorities but with final responsibility for flooding. But he said these boards would need independent fundraising powers, and suggested levies on Council Tax, loans or issuing bonds to raise funds.         

Irranca-Davies acknowledged that should the flooding bill fail to be passed in the coming session of parliament, then it would be unlikely to pass in the following session. “Any new government will have its own priorities and this is not likely to be carried through in the following session,” he said.