A Parliamentary committee has quizzed Prime Minister David Cameron on government flooding and dredging policy during a meeting looking at the Prime Minister’s work.

Last Tuesday (12th January), Prime Minister David Cameron gave evidence to the Liaison Committee, which is made up of the heads of the Commons’ 32 select committees.

During the meeting, Ogmore MP and chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee Huw Irranca-Davies said that senior government advisors have declared flood funding inadequate. He quoted Dieter Helm, chair of natural capital committee, who was recently reappointed by Environment Secretary Liz Truss, as saying that the government’s approach to flooding has been “Not only inadequate, but has no likelihood of ever being adequate.”

Responding to questioning, Cameron said, “On flooding, there’s no doubt [that] we need to do more.” He admitted, “We’ve seen what are called one in one hundred, one in two hundred-year events and they happened in 2007, 2013 and 2015.

“We need to build more flood defences, we need to get better at river management we need to look at the way whole drainage and areas systems work.”

Repeated heavy rainfall in December, brought by three Atlantic storms, led to rivers reaching record heights across Cumbria, Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire, and to over 16,000 homes and businesses being inundated with flood waters.

The Prime Minister said he continues to hold meetings on the issue of flood defence and preparedness and assured that he “wouldn’t rule out taking more action”. However, he also claimed that reactive flood measures (including mobilising military support and moving pumps into flooded areas) were implemented more quickly during flooding in December than in previous years. The same claim was made a week earlier by the environment secretary during a statement on flooding in Parliament.

The PM said there has been an “Attitudinal change” towards better preparedness (he gave the example of dredging in Somerset) and a desire to ensure that planning policy and agriculture policy are compatible with flood prevention efforts. He claimed that flood spending has actually increased under the tory and coalition governments.

However, Labour’s Huw Irranca-Davies said more “fundemental” changes might be needed and that funding remains way below necessary levels. Debating the flooding issue with Liz Truss, Labour’s shadow environment secretary Kerry McCarthy said government advisors had warned of a £2bn hole in flood spending and urged for a complete rethink of the approach to flood preparedness.  

Mr Cameron said the government has protected maintenance spending for flood defences and is adding to flood defence funds by attracting private sector partners; he claimed that this stands to make a “Very big difference” to flood spending. However, the government has repeatedly come under fire over its plan to secure private funds for flood defences, most recently in December 2015, when it was revealed that less than half of the government’s £600m had been secured from private investors.

Dredge some places, rewild others

Even so, EFRA Committee chair Neil Parish credited the PM with pushing ahead dredging in Somerset, which was hit by severe flooding in 2013 and early 2014. Parish claimed, “For years, dredging the river, getting the water out to sea was not seen as the way forward by the Environment Agency.”

Mr Parish also challenged the PM on his “long-term vision” for flood prevention; providing his own vision, Parish said, “In some areas rivers need to be dredged to get the water out to sea. In other areas, perhaps upstream, you need to hang on to that water for longer. So farming practice - planting trees or re-wetting that land - is necessary.”

“At the moment, most of that compensation to farmers is a loss of profit, and there’s not actually much of an incentive for farmers to use land for flooding. What I’d like to see is a much more proactive policy where farmers are encouraged to take on that water, manage it and [for it to be] part of their farming practice, rather than be forced into it.” He described this approach as “More of a carrot”.

Responding the Prime minister said he would back “Everything from upstream attenuation ponds and farming practices [that] try and hold on to the water, to better flood defences in urban areas and for all those things to work together.”

Mr Parish added that “continual” support for flood defences is needed and pointed out that evermore frequent ‘extreme weather events’ require more preventative action.

Government flood policy questioned

The Prime minister and EFRA committee chair also discussed ‘DIY dredging’, with Mr Cameron appearing to be in favour of relaxing rules. In addition to its response to recent floods, the government’s plans for allowing farmers and landowners to clear streams and drainage ditches without permission has come in for criticism by experts. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has said the planned deregulation could increase the risk of flooding in towns.

Instead, proposed measures to allow farmers to have their land flooded have received the hesitant backing of the NFU. NFU deputy president Minette Batters said at the beginning of the month that any such flood scheme should be planned, rather than being a form of ad hoc compensation.

Speaking in Parliament earlier this year, shadow environment secretary Kerry McCarthy welcomed some of the government’s commitments made in the wake of last year’s floods, but said funding remains inadequate and added that she is “Yet to be convinced that the government is undertaking the complete rethink that the Environment Agency has said we need.”

She continued, “Rather than a sticking plaster response every time floods hit, with vague promises and random numbers that are forgotten by spring, we need a long-term, coordinated approach.”