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Flood Recovery

Date of statement	9 July 2007
Type	Oral

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With permission, Mr Speaker, [in my role as lead minister] I would like to make a statement about recovery efforts following the recent flooding.

Above all I would like to express my deepest sympathy and the sympathy of the whole house to the friends and families of those who have lost their lives. Our thoughts are with them. 

The scale of devastation is enormous. 31,200 homes and 7,000 businesses have been affected. Many roads and rail links remain closed. Schools have been damaged. Agriculture has been hit hard and lives of thousands of people have been disrupted.

The recovery effort will need support from across central, regional and local government, businesses and voluntary organisations. My hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth (John Healey) has taken the lead to coordinate Government support. He has been working closely with colleagues across Whitehall to do so.

He, like my Rt Hon Friends the Prime Minister and the Environment Secretary, has visited some of the worst affected areas. Indeed just this morning he met the Chief Executive Officers of all affected local authorities. We will be following this up with a further meeting in Leeds on Wednesday, and other visits from colleagues are planned.

Reporting has tended to focus on particular areas. Hull, Rotherham, Chesterfield. But the fact is a large number of areas and a very large number of people have been affected across the country. We recognise this and our commitment is to mobilise assistance to every community that has been affected, no matter where.

I myself have visited communities that have been affected in Toll Bar and in Sheffield. 

Physical damage is the most obvious effect of flooding. But I was struck by its emotional impact, too. I have met people who have been devastated by what has happened: such as the elderly man living alone who had lost not just his possessions, but the phone line that was his link to the outside world. Luckily his daughter was around to help him. And I recognise, too, that many others feel angry about what has happened. We must help them to pick up the pieces of their lives. 

I also met some of the brave men and women who have made a real difference at a difficult time.

Families and friends have helped each other out. The Fire and Rescue Service, the ambulance service, and the Police have done an excellent job. Local authorities have stepped up to the mark - I'd like to acknowledge their resourcefulness, and the way that have prioritised to give most support to the most vulnerable. The voluntary sector has come into its own.  

In fact a whole range of organisations have worked together to give people the practical help they need. We have seen fantastic co-ordination of services. And I have been impressed by how very testing events have brought out the best in people. 

Communities want to get back to normal as swiftly as possible. Our priority now is to support them in doing so. The Hon Member for Wentworth will continue working closely with the local authorities, the fire and rescue services, the insurance industry and other partners - who have already achieved so much - to ensure that everything possible is being done.

Mr Speaker, we are providing vulnerable people with access to crisis loans and community care grants so they can afford basic essentials like fresh clothes.

We are giving people advice so they can help keep themselves and their families safe and healthy.

We are meeting tomorrow with the Association of British Insurers to ensure hard hit households and businesses get the support they urgently need.

We are working to protect jobs. Regional Development Agencies have set up funds to support small businesses affected by the floods.

But there is much more to do. We are gathering information on a daily basis on the scale of the challenges, we are visiting affected areas. 

We know that we need to maintain effort and that there are long term problems to face across a range of areas.

Where schools are still closed, councils have swiftly arranged alternatives to ensure children are educated. The Department for Children, Schools and Families stand ready to work with schools if they need assistance to get buildings operable again as soon as possible, and especially by September. DCSF are ready to talk to authorities when the situation is fully assessed.
 
While local authorities have undertaken sterling work in assisting with short term homelessness, many homes are going to be uninhabitable for some time and we know medium to long term temporary accommodation will be needed. 

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are keeping the situation under review and remain in close contact with the National Farmers Union. They stand ready to offer additional support to ensure agriculture remains robust and viable in the region.

The Department for Transport stands by to assist local authorities in developing a recovery plan once the full scale of the damage to road and rail links has been assessed.

Mr Speaker, it is because there is much more to do that on Saturday my Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister announced that the Government will be providing a rescue fund of £14m. We are working to get these resources to local authority budgets as soon as possible.

These funds will be in addition to the significant extra resources that local authorities can access through the Bellwin Scheme, and Mr Speaker, let me make clear that they are a first step - not the last. 

£10m will go direct to local authorities in flood-hit areas to support the work that they and other organisations are already doing, particularly to help those who have lost everything and need immediate support. We will work closely with the Local Government Association to help local authorities deliver this support quickly and effectively.

£3m will meet claims from local authorities for help with the immediate cost of repairing roads and bridges.

And £1m will help some of our most vulnerable people replace essential household items.

Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister also announced that we are making changes to the 'Bellwin scheme' in relation to these circumstances, designed to help local authorities reclaim costs in emergencies.

Instead of having 2 months to claim under the scheme, local authorities will now have 6 months.

And instead of being able to claim 85 per cent of the expenses incurred, local authorities will now be able to claim back the whole costs of eligible expenditure.

This will help ensure that more assistance reaches those who need it most.

Mr Speaker, debate has already started about what more we can do in the long term to reduce the chances of this kind of destruction happening again. 

It's clear that we need to continue investing in the fire and rescue services so they have the equipment they need.  This Government has invested £200m in "New Dimension" equipment for the fire and rescue services. We saw the crucial difference this could make - with new high-volume pumps being used to drain flood water in the Midlands and the North.

We also understand the need to continue investing in flood defences. As My Rt Hon Colleague the Environment Secretary Announced to the House last Monday Government investment across government will rise from £600m this year to £800m in 2010/11. 

We have strengthened planning policy on development and flood risk; this makes sure that planners and developers work together to locate new developments away from flood risk areas where possible. 

And we must learn from the events of recent days. These rains were unprecedented, but it would be wrong to suppose that such an event could never happen again.  We must consider what more could be done to prevent this scale of damage in the future. 

It's right to be thinking for the long term. But we shouldn't let that detract from the urgent business of giving practical help to the people who are suffering now.

Mr Speaker, the new measures that I have outlined today are essential. But let me reiterate that they are a first step. In the weeks and months to come we will continue to work closely with local leaders to help all our communities get back to their normal lives as quickly as possible.