My Lords, in moving this amendment I will speak to it and to other amendments in this group. At the outset, I would like to declare my interests on the register, and also that I am co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Water, and that I chaired a study into bioresources and was co-author, with Westminster Sustainable Business Forum, of Bricks and Water: Managing Flood Risk and Accelerating Adaptation in a Climate Emergency. Many of its recommendations lie behind these amendments.
I would like to speak to each of the amendments in turn. I thank my noble friend Lord Wigley for co-signing and supporting Amendment 231. This amendment, together with Amendments 232 and 245, are probably the key amendments in the group. I find it staggering that, whereas Wales implemented Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 as far back
as January 2019, and in July published the first post-implementation review into Schedule 3, on SUDS, and how it had been implemented in Wales, we have still not implemented Schedule 3 in England. The reason why this amendment is required is that, since 2013, more than 10% of all new homes in England have consistently been built on land at risk of flooding, in particular flood zones 2 and 3.
I will quote briefly from page 47 of the revised National Planning Policy Framework, which was published this month. Paragraph 159 says:
“Inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding should be avoided by directing development away from areas at highest risk (whether existing or future). Where development is necessary in such areas, the development should be made safe for its lifetime without increasing flood risk elsewhere”.
That simply does not go far enough. In essence, we have encapsulated in Amendment 232 a prohibition on building on residential flood plains. It is just not appropriate to continue to build on areas prone to flooding, displacing the water retained there into existing developments.
The reason why Amendment 231 is important is encapsulated by the work of CIWEM, the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, which came out with a report earlier this year, the findings of which are that
“Surface water flood risk is commonly managed by small teams frustrated by unclear duties and remit, complicated funding processes, fragmented data and a lack of capacity and skills”.
CIWEM has asked that the Government
“show greater leadership on surface water management … ensure that sufficient funding is provided to surface water management schemes … clarify and consolidate surface water management regulations, standards and plans”
and
“improve approaches to the collection and sharing of data and development of asset registers”.
Those conclusions chime with many of the amendments and recommendations set out therein.
As far back as 2007, Sir Michael Pitt said that there should be an end to the automatic right to connect: that you cannot have developments which are in inappropriate places but also try to connect to inappropriate piping. That is why Amendment 245 is crucial. It calls on water undertakers—in effect, water companies—to become statutory consultees. I am mindful of what my noble friend Lord Howe said in summing up a previous debate about the number of statutory consultees to date, but I believe it is appropriate for water companies to become statutory consultees so that they will have the power in the same way as the Environment Agency, which can recommend against a particular development being built in an appropriate place to make sure that it connects only where the infrastructure is appropriate. It is not appropriate to connect new developments to antiquated pipes that simply cannot take them.
In fact, Amendment 245 would help the Government, who were criticised as recently as yesterday by the Office for Environmental Protection for falling short in their understanding of its review of sewage spills over recent years. As well as Defra, the OEP has criticised Ofwat and the Environment Agency. Amendment 245 would assist the Government by
ensuring an end to an automatic right to connect, which was called for as far back as 2007, following the floods, by Sir Michael Pitt.
Sustainable drains are part of this. Any new development should be built only if there are sustainable drains. They could be natural or physical, but they should ensure that the water is kept out of the combined sewers at all costs. This has to be front ended. We have to stop building three, four or five-bedroom houses, which multiply by three, four or five the amount of wastewater—let us call it what it is: sewage—which so often spills into the combined sewers, causing a health hazard, or on to public highways. Let us note that no highway authority is contributing in any shape or form financially to keeping the water out of those combined sewers. That is why Amendment 231 is required.
Amendment 232 would ban residential building on flood plains for the reasons I rehearsed a moment ago. That is a key amendment, along with Amendments 231 and 235.
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Amendment 236 contains a duty to make flooding data available. This was one of the conclusions reached by CIWEM, but it was also one of our conclusions in the Bricks & Water reports: that we need to ensure that flooding data is available and publicised to those who need it. That was the genesis of the amendment: in effect, that the Environment Agency should ensure that the flood map for planning should be expanded to include all current and future sources of flood risk, and assist with the application of the sequential test and site-specific risk assessment, which are referred to in the National Planning Policy Framework.
Again, Amendment 240 was a recommendation of the Bricks & Water reports looking at flood risks: that Part C of the building regulations should be strengthened to require all properties at high risk of flooding to include property flood resilience measures. These measures should be specified and installed in accordance with the CIRIA code of practice for property flood risk. Is it not just common sense to encourage individual home resilience to help individual home owners, but also for the greater good?
Amendment 237 again is a Bricks & Water recommendation:
“Given the limited uptake of property flood resilience measures and continued development within the floodplain, Government should either extend the Flood Re scheme to cover residential buildings constructed after 1st January 2009, or put in place an alternative scheme. This should be evaluated as part of the ongoing Blanc review into flood insurance”.
I think the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, has lent her support to that amendment and I am grateful to her for that. It is important to remember that when Flood Re was created it was assumed that no new houses would be built on flood plains. As we know, since 2013, 10% of new homes continue to be built on flood plains.
Amendment 238 is a recommendation that it should be mandatory for all insurers to offer Build Back Better funding reinvestment costs of up to £100,000 over and above the work to repair damage caused by a flood.
I am delighted to support Amendment 240, which I think the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, will speak to. It is important that we have those flood risk recommendations.
Amendment 241 states that all insurers should offer discounted premiums to customers who install property flood resilience measures in accordance with the CIRIA code of practice.
With those brief remarks, I believe that each and every one of the amendments in this group is extremely important. There is an urgency to SUDS being implemented by Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. It should be implemented this year rather than delayed to next year. There is an urgency to completely preventing future housebuilding on flood plains. It is vital that, as Amendment 245 sets out, water companies become statutory consultees so that, where there is no way of connecting a major housing development to existing infrastructure, the water companies should be allowed in the terms of the price review, which is every five years, to make the relevant investment they are required to make. I beg to move.